Methods And Apparatus For Generating Output Data Streams Relating To Underground Utility Marking Operations

ABSTRACT

Methods and apparatus for generating electronic records of marking operations for underground facilities/utilities. Electronic records of marking information may be logged/stored in local memory of a marking device, formatted in various manners, processed and/or analyzed at the marking device itself, and/or transmitted in whole or in part to another device (e.g., a remote computer/server) for storage, processing and/or analysis. In one example, an output stream of data packets is provided, wherein each data packet includes one or more flag fields that is/are set or reset upon at least one actuation of the marking device.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims a priority benefit, under 35 U.S.C. §120, as acontinuation (CON) of U.S. Non-provisional application Ser. No.12/622,768, entitled “METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR GENERATING AN ELECTRONICRECORD OF A MARKING OPERATION INCLUDING SERVICE-RELATED INFORMATIONAND/OR TICKET INFORMATION,” filed on Nov. 20, 2009 under attorney docketno. DYC0011US02.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/622,768 claims a priority benefit,under 35 U.S.C. §120, as a continuation (CON) of U.S. Non-provisionalapplication Ser. No. 12/539,497, entitled “Methods and Apparatus forGenerating an Electronic Record of a Marking Operation based on MarkingDevice Actuations,” filed on Aug. 11, 2009, and issued as U.S. Pat. No.8,280,631 on Oct. 2, 2012 under attorney docket no. DYC0011US01.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/539,497 claims the benefit, under 35U.S.C. §119(e), of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/102,151,entitled “Data acquisition system for and method of analyzing markingoperations based on marking device actuations,” filed on Oct. 2, 2008.

Each of the above-identified applications is hereby incorporated hereinby reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Field service operations may be any operation in which companiesdispatch technicians and/or other staff to perform certain activities,for example, installations, services and/or repairs. Field serviceoperations may exist in various industries, examples of which include,but are not limited to, network installations, utility installations,security systems, construction, medical equipment, heating, ventilatingand air conditioning (HVAC) and the like.

An example of a field service operation in the construction industry isa so-called “locate and marking operation,” also commonly referred tomore simply as a “locate operation” (or sometimes merely as “a locate”).In a typical locate operation, a locate technician visits a work site inwhich there is a plan to disturb the ground (e.g., excavate, dig one ormore holes and/or trenches, bore, etc.) so as to determine a presence oran absence of one or more underground facilities (such as various typesof utility cables and pipes) in a dig area to be excavated or disturbedat the work site. In some instances, a locate operation may be requestedfor a “design” project, in which there may be no immediate plan toexcavate or otherwise disturb the ground, but nonetheless informationabout a presence or absence of one or more underground facilities at awork site may be valuable to inform a planning, permitting and/orengineering design phase of a future construction project.

In many states, an excavator who plans to disturb ground at a work siteis required by law to notify any potentially affected undergroundfacility owners prior to undertaking an excavation activity. Advancednotice of excavation activities may be provided by an excavator (oranother party) by contacting a “one-call center.” One-call centerstypically are operated by a consortium of underground facility ownersfor the purposes of receiving excavation notices and in turn notifyingfacility owners and/or their agents of a plan to excavate. As part of anadvanced notification, excavators typically provide to the one-callcenter various information relating to the planned activity, including alocation (e.g., address) of the work site and a description of the digarea to be excavated or otherwise disturbed at the work site.

A locate operation typically is initiated as a result of an excavatorproviding an excavation notice to a one-call center. An excavationnotice also is commonly referred to as a “locate request,” and may beprovided by the excavator to the one-call center via an electronic mailmessage, information entry via a website maintained by the one-callcenter, or a telephone conversation between the excavator and a humanoperator at the one-call center. The locate request may include anaddress or some other location-related information describing thegeographic location of a work site at which the excavation is to beperformed, as well as a description of the dig area (e.g., a textdescription), such as its location relative to certain landmarks and/orits approximate dimensions, within which there is a plan to disturb theground at the work site. One-call centers similarly may receive locaterequests for design projects (for which, as discussed above, there maybe no immediate plan to excavate or otherwise disturb the ground).

Using the information provided in a locate request for plannedexcavation or design projects, the one-call center identifies certainunderground facilities that may be present at the indicated work site.For this purpose, many one-call centers typically maintain a collection“polygon maps” which indicate, within a given geographic area over whichthe one-call center has jurisdiction, generally where undergroundfacilities may be found relative to some geographic reference frame orcoordinate system.

Polygon maps typically are provided to the one-call centers byunderground facilities owners within the jurisdiction of the one callcenter (“members” of the one-call center). A one-call center firstprovides the facility owner/member with one or more maps (e.g., streetor property maps) within the jurisdiction, on which are superimposedsome type of grid or coordinate system employed by the one-call centeras a geographic frame of reference. Using the maps provided by theone-call center, the respective facilities owners/members draw one ormore polygons on each map to indicate an area within which theirfacilities generally are disposed underground (without indicating thefacilities themselves). These polygons themselves do not preciselyindicate geographic locations of respective underground facilities;rather, the area enclosed by a given polygon generally provides anover-inclusive indication of where a given facilities owner'sunderground facilities are disposed. Different facilities owners/membersmay draw polygons of different sizes around areas including theirunderground facilities, and in some instances such polygons can coverappreciably large geographic regions (e.g., an entire subdivision of aresidential area), which may further obfuscate the actual/preciselocation of respective underground facilities.

Based on the polygon maps collected from the facilities owners/members,the one-call center may in some instances create composite polygon mapsto show polygons of multiple different members on a single map. Whetherusing single member or composite polygon maps, the one-call centerexamines the address or location information provided in the locaterequest and identifies a significant buffer zone around an identifiedwork site so as to make an over-inclusive identification of facilitiesowners/members that may have underground facilities present (e.g., toerr on the side of caution). In particular, based on this generallyover-inclusive buffer zone around the identified work site (and in someinstances significantly over-inclusive buffer zone), the one-call centerconsults the polygon maps to identify which member polygons intersectwith all or a portion of the buffer zone so as to notify theseunderground facility owners/members and/or their agents of the proposedexcavation or design project. Again, it should be appreciated that thebuffer zones around an indicated work site utilized by one-call centersfor this purpose typically embrace a geographic area that includes butgoes well beyond the actual work site, and in many cases the geographicarea enclosed by a buffer zone is significantly larger than the actualdig area in which excavation or other similar activities are planned.Similarly, as noted above, the area enclosed by a given member polygongenerally does not provide a precise indication of where one or moreunderground facilities may in fact be found.

In some instances, one-call centers may also or alternatively haveaccess to various existing maps of underground facilities in theirjurisdiction, referred to as “facilities maps.” Facilities mapstypically are maintained by facilities owners/members within thejurisdiction and show, for respective different utility types, whereunderground facilities purportedly may be found relative to somegeographic reference frame or coordinate system (e.g., a grid, a streetor property map, GPS latitude and longitude coordinates, etc.).Facilities maps generally provide somewhat more detail than polygon mapsprovided by facilities owners/members; however, in some instances theinformation contained in facilities maps may not be accurate and/orcomplete. For at least this reason, whether using polygon maps orfacilities maps, as noted above the one-call center utilizes asignificant buffer zone around an identified work site so as to make anover-inclusive identification of facilities owners/members that may haveunderground facilities present.

Once facilities implicated by the locate request are identified by aone-call center (e.g., via the polygon map/buffer zone process), theone-call center generates a “locate request ticket” (also known as a“locate ticket,” or simply a “ticket”). The locate request ticketessentially constitutes an instruction to inspect a work site andtypically identifies the work site of the proposed excavation or designand a description of the dig area, typically lists on the ticket all ofthe underground facilities that may be present at the work site (e.g.,by providing a member code for the facility owner of an undergroundfacility that falls within a given polygon), and may also includevarious other information relevant to the proposed excavation or design(e.g., the name of the excavation company, a name of a property owner orparty contracting the excavation company to perform the excavation,etc.). The one-call center sends the ticket to one or more undergroundfacility owners and/or one or more locate service providers (who may beacting as contracted agents of the facility owners) so that they canconduct a locate and marking operation to verify a presence or absenceof the underground facilities in the dig area. For example, in someinstances, a given underground facility owner may operate its own fleetof locate technicians, in which case the one-call center may send theticket to the underground facility owner. In other instances, a givenfacility owner may contract with a locate service provider to receivelocate request tickets and perform a locate and marking operation inresponse to received tickets on their behalf.

More specifically, upon receiving the locate request, a locate serviceprovider or a facility owner (hereafter referred to as a “ticketrecipient”) may dispatch a locate technician to the work site of plannedexcavation to determine a presence or absence of one or more undergroundfacilities in the dig area to be excavated or otherwise disturbed. Afirst step for the locate technician includes utilizing an undergroundfacility “locate device,” which is an instrument for detectingfacilities that are concealed in some manner, such as cables and pipesthat are located underground, to verify the presence or absence ofunderground facilities indicated in the locate request ticket aspotentially present in the dig area (e.g., via the facility owner membercodes listed in the ticket). An underground facility locate device isused to detect electromagnetic fields that are generated by a “test”signal provided along a length of a target facility to be identified.Locate devices typically include both a signal transmitter to providethe test signal (e.g., which is applied by the locate technician to atracer wire disposed along a length of a facility), and a signalreceiver which is generally a hand-held apparatus carried by the locatetechnician as the technician walks around the dig area to search forunderground facilities. The signal receiver indicates a presence of afacility when it detects electromagnetic fields arising from the testsignal. Conversely, the absence of a signal detected by the receiver ofthe locate device generally indicates the absence of the targetfacility.

Subsequently, the locate technician then generally marks the presence(and in some cases the absence) of a given underground facility in thedig area based on the various signals detected (or not detected) usingthe locate device. For this purpose, the locate technicianconventionally utilizes a “marking device” to dispense a markingmaterial on, for example, the ground, pavement, or other surface along adetected underground facility. Marking material may be any material,substance, compound, and/or element, used or which may be usedseparately or in combination to mark, signify, and/or indicate. Examplesof marking materials may include, but are not limited to, paint, chalk,dye, and/or iron. Marking devices, such as paint marking wands and/orpaint marking wheels, provide a convenient method of dispensing markingmaterials onto surfaces, such as onto the surface of the ground orpavement.

FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate a conventional marking device 50 with amechanical actuation system to dispense paint as a marker. Generallyspeaking, the marking device 50 includes a handle 38 at a proximal endof an elongated shaft 36 and resembles a sort of “walking stick,” suchthat a technician may operate the marking device while standing/walkingin an upright or substantially upright position. A marking dispenserholder 40 is coupled to a distal end of the shaft 36 so as to containand support a marking dispenser 56, e.g., an aerosol paint can having aspray nozzle 54. Typically, a marking dispenser in the form of anaerosol paint can is placed into the holder 40 upside down, such thatthe spray nozzle 54 is proximate to the distal end of the shaft (closeto the ground, pavement or other surface on which markers are to bedispensed).

In FIGS. 1A and 1B, the mechanical actuation system of the markingdevice 50 includes an actuator or mechanical trigger 42 proximate to thehandle 38 that is actuated/triggered by the technician (e.g., viapulling, depressing or squeezing with fingers/hand). The actuator 42 isconnected to a mechanical coupler 52 (e.g., a rod) disposed inside andalong a length of the elongated shaft 36. The coupler 52 is in turnconnected to an actuation mechanism 58, at the distal end of the shaft36, which mechanism extends outward from the shaft in the direction ofthe spray nozzle 54. Thus, the actuator 42, the mechanical coupler 52,and the actuation mechanism 58 constitute the mechanical actuationsystem of the marking device 50.

FIG. 1A shows the mechanical actuation system of the conventionalmarking device 50 in the non-actuated state, wherein the actuator 42 is“at rest” (not being pulled) and, as a result, the actuation mechanism58 is not in contact with the spray nozzle 54. FIG. 1B shows the markingdevice 50 in the actuated state, wherein the actuator 42 is beingactuated (pulled, depressed, squeezed) by the technician. When actuated,the actuator 42 displaces the mechanical coupler 52 and the actuationmechanism 58 such that the actuation mechanism contacts and appliespressure to the spray nozzle 54, thus causing the spray nozzle todeflect slightly and dispense paint. The mechanical actuation system isspring-loaded so that it automatically returns to the non-actuated state(FIG. 1A) when the actuator 42 is released.

In some environments, arrows, flags, darts, or other types of physicalmarks may be used to mark the presence or absence of an undergroundfacility in a dig area, in addition to or as an alternative to amaterial applied to the ground (such as paint, chalk, dye, tape) alongthe path of a detected utility. The marks resulting from any of a widevariety of materials and/or objects used to indicate a presence orabsence of underground facilities generally are referred to as “locatemarks.” Often, different color materials and/or physical objects may beused for locate marks, wherein different colors correspond to differentutility types. For example, the American Public Works Association (APWA)has established a standardized color-coding system for utilityidentification for use by public agencies, utilities, contractors andvarious groups involved in ground excavation (e.g., red=electric powerlines and cables; blue=potable water; orange=telecommunication lines;yellow=gas, oil, steam). In some cases, the technician also may provideone or more marks to indicate that no facility was found in the dig area(sometimes referred to as a “clear”).

As mentioned above, the foregoing activity of identifying and marking apresence or absence of one or more underground facilities generally isreferred to for completeness as a “locate and marking operation.”However, in light of common parlance adopted in the constructionindustry, and/or for the sake of brevity, one or both of the respectivelocate and marking functions may be referred to in some instances simplyas a “locate operation” or a “locate” (i.e., without making any specificreference to the marking function). Accordingly, it should beappreciated that any reference in the relevant arts to the task of alocate technician simply as a “locate operation” or a “locate” does notnecessarily exclude the marking portion of the overall process.

Inaccurate locating and/or marking of underground facilities can resultin physical damage to the facilities, property damage, and/or personalinjury during the excavation process that, in turn, can expose afacility owner or contractor to significant legal liability. Whenunderground facilities are damaged and/or when property damage orpersonal injury results from damaging an underground facility during anexcavation, the excavator may assert that the facility was notaccurately located and/or marked by a locate technician, while thelocate contractor who dispatched the technician may in turn assert thatthe facility was indeed properly located and marked. Proving whether theunderground facility was properly located and marked can be difficultafter the excavation (or after some damage, e.g., a gas explosion),because in many cases the physical locate marks (e.g., the markingmaterial or other physical marks used to mark the facility on thesurface of the dig area) will have been disturbed or destroyed duringthe excavation process (and/or damage resulting from excavation).

Previous efforts at documenting locate operations have focused primarilyon locate devices that employ electromagnetic fields to determine thepresence of an underground facility. For example, U.S. Pat. No.5,576,973, naming inventor Alan Haddy and entitled “Apparatus and Methodfor Obtaining Geographical Positional Data for an Object LocatedUnderground” (hereafter “Haddy”), is directed to a locate device (i.e.,a “locator”) that receives and stores data from a global positioningsystem (“GPS”) to identify the position of the locate device as anunderground object (e.g., a cable) is detected by the locate device.Haddy notes that by recording geographical position data relating to thedetected underground object, there is no need to physically mark thelocation of the underground object on the ground surface, and therecorded position data may be used in the future to re-locate theunderground object.

Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 7,319,387, naming inventors Willson et al. andentitled “GPS Interface for Locating Device” (hereafter “Willson”), isdirected to a locate device for locating “position markers,” i.e.,passive antennas that reflect back RF signals and which are installedalong buried utilities. In Willson, a GPS device may be communicativelycoupled to the locate device, or alternatively provided as an integralpart of the locate device, to store GPS coordinate data associated withposition markers detected by the locate device. Electronic memory isprovided in the locate device for storing a data record of the GPScoordinate data, and the data record may be uploaded to a remotecomputer and used to update a mapping database for utilities.

U.S. Publication No. 2006/0282280, naming inventors Stotz et al. andentitled “Ticket and Data Management” (hereafter “Stotz”), also isdirected to a locate device (i.e., a “locator”) including a GPSreceiver. Upon detection of the presence of a utility line, Stotz′locate device can update ticket data with GPS coordinates for thedetected utility line. Once the locate device has updated the ticketdata, the reconfigured ticket data may be transmitted to a network.

U.S. Publication No. 2007/0219722, naming inventors Sawyer, Jr. et al.and entitled “System and Method for Collecting and Updating GeographicalData” (hereafter “Sawyer”), is directed to collecting and recording datarepresentative of the location and characteristics of utilities andinfrastructure in the field for creating a grid or map. Sawyer employs afield data collection unit including a “locating pole” that is placed ontop of or next to a utility to be identified and added to the grid ormap. The locating pole includes an antenna coupled to a locationdetermination system, such as a GPS unit, to provide longitudinal andlatitudinal coordinates of the utility under or next to the end of thelocating pole. The data gathered by the field data collection unit issent to a server to provide a permanent record that may be used fordamage prevention and asset management operations.

SUMMARY

Applicants have recognized and appreciated that uncertainties which maybe attendant to locate and marking operations may be significantlyreduced by collecting various information particularly relating to themarking operation, rather than merely focusing on information relatingto detection of underground facilities via a locate device. In manyinstances, excavators arriving to a work site have only physical locatemarks on which to rely to indicate a presence or absence of undergroundfacilities, and they are not generally privy to information that mayhave been collected previously during the locate operation. Accordingly,the integrity and accuracy of the physical locate marks applied during amarking operation arguably is significantly more important in connectionwith reducing risk of damage and/or injury during excavation than thelocation of where an underground facility was detected via a locatedevice during a locate operation.

More specifically, Applicants have recognized and appreciated thatconventional techniques for using a locate device to detect undergroundfacilities are sometimes tentative and typically iterative in nature,and use of locate devices with GPS capabilities may result in redundant,spurious and/or incomplete geographic location data collected by suchdevices. For example, during a typical locate operation, a technicianattempting to locate an underground facility with a locate device oftenneeds to sweep an appreciable area around a suspected undergroundfacility, and make multiple passes with the locate device over theunderground facility to obtain meaningful detection signals.Furthermore, the technician often needs to rely significantly on visualobservations of the area, including relevant landmarks such as facilityconnections to buildings, transformer boxes, maintenance/public accesspoints, curbs, sidewalks, roadways, etc., to effectively deduce asensible path of an underground facility to be located. The foregoing isparticularly true if at some point during the locate operation thetechnician loses a signal from an underground facility in the process ofbeing detected (e.g., due to a broken transmitter circuit path from adamaged tracer wire, and loss of the transmitter test signal). In viewof the foregoing, it may be readily appreciated that collecting andlogging geographic location information throughout this process mayresult in excessive and/or imprecise data, or in some instancesincomplete relevant data (e.g., in the case of signal loss/broken tracerwire), from which it may be difficult to cull the data that is trulycomplete and representative of where the underground facility ultimatelywas detected.

Furthermore, Applicants have recognized and appreciated that thelocation at which an underground facility ultimately is detected duringa locate operation is not always where the technician physically marksthe ground, pavement or other surface during a marking operation; infact, technician imprecision or negligence may in some instances resultin significant discrepancies between detected location and physicallocate marks. Accordingly, having documentation (e.g., an electronicrecord) of where physical locate marks were actually dispensed (i.e.,what an excavator encounters when arriving to a work site) is notablymore relevant to the assessment of liability in the event of damageand/or injury than where an underground facility was detected prior tomarking.

Examples of marking devices configured to collect some types ofinformation relating specifically to marking operations are provided inU.S. publication no. 2008-0228294-A1, published Sep. 18, 2008, filedMar. 13, 2007, and entitled “Marking System and Method With Locationand/or Time Tracking,” and U.S. publication no. 2008-0245299-A1,published Oct. 9, 2008, filed Apr. 4, 2007, and entitled “Marking Systemand Method,” both of which publications are incorporated herein byreference. These publications describe, amongst other things, collectinginformation relating to the geographic location, time, and/orcharacteristics (e.g., color/type) of dispensed marking material from amarking device and generating an electronic record based on thiscollected information. Applicants have recognized and appreciated thatcollecting information relating to both geographic location and color ofdispensed marking material provides for automated correlation ofgeographic information for a locate mark to facility type (e.g.,red=electric power lines and cables; blue=potable water;orange=telecommunication lines; yellow=gas, oil, steam); in contrast, inconventional locate devices equipped with GPS capabilities as discussedabove, there is no apparent automated provision for readily linking GPSinformation for a detected facility to the type of facility detected.Applicants have further appreciated that building a more comprehensiveelectronic record of information relating to marking operations furtherfacilitates ensuring the accuracy of such operations.

In view of the foregoing, various inventive embodiments disclosed hereinrelate generally to methods and apparatus for collecting, logging(electronically storing), formatting, processing, and/or electronicallyanalyzing a variety of information relating to marking operations. Morespecifically, some exemplary embodiments described herein are directedto methods and apparatus for acquiring information relating to a markingoperation (i.e., dispensing of a marking material so as to mark apresence or absence of an underground facility), generating acomprehensive electronic record of the marking operation including datarelating to one or more actuations of a marking device to dispense amarking material, and storing and/or transmitting the electronic recordfor subsequent access, processing and/or analysis.

For example, in some implementations of the methods and apparatusdescribed herein, when a locate technician actuates (triggers) a markingdevice to dispense marking material, control electronics in the markingdevice may collect and store information from various devices (alsoreferred to herein generally as “input devices”) included in the markingdevice (e.g., a location sensor or tracking system to provide geographicinformation about where the material is dispensed, a time sensor ortiming system to provide timing information about when the material isdispensed, a marking material detection mechanism to provide informationabout one or more characteristics of material dispensed, etc.).Information may be collected at a start of a given actuation, at one ormore times during the actuation, and/or at the end of the actuation, andfor successive actuations. In some cases, information relating to themarking operation may be collected or otherwise available before orafter a given actuation or a succession of multiple actuations, as analternative to or in addition to information collected during one ormore actuations.

Further, in some embodiments of the invention disclosed herein, one ormore input devices of a marking apparatus may include a communicationinterface (e.g., network interface) and/or a user interface, andinformation received from the interface(s) may include or be related toa locate request ticket, in response to which the locate and markingoperation is being performed (i.e., “ticket information”). This ticketinformation may include, for example, a one-call center ticket number, astreet address or other geographic location of the work site, adescription of the dig area, and/or an indication of one or morefacilities to be marked in the dig area (e.g., via facility owner membercodes). Examples of additional and/or other information that may bereceived via a user interface associated with the marking device mayinclude “service-related information,” e.g., one or more identifiers forthe locate technician carrying out the locate and marking operation, oneor more identifiers for equipment used by the technician, and/or one ormore identifiers for an employer of the technician.

Accordingly, for purposes of the present disclosure, “markinginformation” refers generally to any of the various types of informationrelating to a marking operation including for example, but not limitedto, service-related information, ticket information, time information,geographic location information, and marking material information, aloneor in various combinations with each other.

In various embodiments discussed herein, marking information collectedin response to actuation of the marking device, and/or otherwisegenerally associated with the locate and marking operation, may belogged in (entered into) an electronic record of the marking operation,and such an electronic record may be stored in memory of the markingdevice, particularly formatted, processed and/or analyzed at the markingdevice itself, and/or transmitted to another device for storage,formatting, processing and/or analysis.

During and/or following collection and/or storage of informationregarding the marking operation, data compiled in one or more electronicrecords associated with the marking operation may be accessed, processedand/or analyzed to provide further information relating to theperformance of the marking operation. For example, in other embodimentsdisclosed herein, data from one or more electronic records of themarking operation is processed so as to electronically render (visuallyrecreate) the marking operation (e.g., on a display device associatedwith the marking device or other display device).

In one such exemplary implementation, lines, dots or other indicatorsare displayed in relative positions on a display screen (e.g., at anappropriate scale based on an available display field) and representrespective actuations of the marking device (and corresponding physicallocate marks created on a ground, pavement or other surface). In oneaspect of this implementation, multiple different underground facilitiesthat may have been located and marked during a locate and markingoperation may be electronically rendered based on the informationcontained in one or more electronic records to provide a compositevisual representation in the available display field (e.g., in whichdifferent marked underground facilities are displayed in differentline-types and/or different colors).

In other aspects, electronic renderings may be generated statically(e.g., in which all available data in an electronic record is renderedessentially simultaneously on an available display field) or in an“animated” time-sequenced recreation of the marking operation (e.g.,based on at least timing and geographic location information in theelectronic record) once an electronic record is generated. In yetanother exemplary implementation, various information to be logged in anelectronic record may be passed/transmitted in essentially real-time toone or more display devices to facilitate an essentially real-timeelectronic rendering on an available display field of a markingoperation in process.

In sum, one embodiment of the present invention is directed to anapparatus for generating an electronic record of a marking operation tomark on ground, pavement, or other surface a presence or an absence ofat least one underground facility. The apparatus comprises an actuatorto dispense a marking material so as to form at least one locate mark onthe ground, pavement or other surface to mark the presence or theabsence of the at least one underground facility, at least one inputdevice to provide marking information regarding the marking operation,and a memory to store processor-executable instructions and theelectronic record of the marking operation. The apparatus furthercomprises a processor coupled to the memory, the at least one inputdevice, and the actuator. Upon execution of the processor-executableinstructions by the processor, the processor logs in the electronicrecord an actuation data set including a plurality of actuation evententries for at least one actuation of the actuator, wherein at least oneactuation event entry includes at least some of the marking informationprovided by the at least one input device.

Another embodiment is directed to a method for generating an electronicrecord of a marking operation to mark on ground, pavement, or othersurface a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility.The method comprises: A) effecting at least one actuation of an actuatorof a marking apparatus to dispense a marking material so as to form atleast one locate mark on the ground, pavement or other surface to markthe presence or the absence of the at least one underground facility; B)providing marking information regarding the marking operation; and C)logging into an electronic record an actuation data set including aplurality of actuation event entries for the at least one actuation ofthe actuator in A), wherein at least one actuation event entry includesat least some of the marking information provided in B).

Another embodiment is directed to an apparatus for generating anelectronic record of a marking operation to mark on ground, pavement, orother surface a presence or an absence of at least one undergroundfacility. The apparatus comprises an actuator to dispense a markingmaterial so as to form at least one locate mark on the ground, pavementor other surface to mark the presence or the absence of the at least oneunderground facility, at least one input device to provide markinginformation regarding the marking operation, wherein the markinginformation includes at least one of service-related information andticket information, and a memory to store processor-executableinstructions and the electronic record of the marking operation. Theapparatus further comprises a processor coupled to the memory, the atleast one input device, and the actuator. Upon execution of theprocessor-executable instructions by the processor, the processor logsin the electronic record actuation data for at least one actuation ofthe actuator, and wherein the processor further logs in the electronicrecord at least some of the service-related information and/or at leastsome of the ticket information provided by the at least one inputdevice.

Another embodiment is directed to a method for generating an electronicrecord of a marking operation to mark on ground, pavement, or othersurface a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility.The method comprises: A) effecting at least one actuation of an actuatorof a marking apparatus to dispense a marking material so as to form atleast one locate mark on the ground, pavement or other surface to markthe presence or the absence of the at least one underground facility; B)providing marking information regarding the marking operation, whereinthe marking information includes at least one of service-relatedinformation and ticket information; C) logging into an electronic recordactuation data for the at least one actuation of the actuator in A); andD) logging into the electronic record at least some of theservice-related information and/or at least some of the ticketinformation provided in B).

Another embodiment is directed to a method for providing an electronicrendering on a display device of a marking operation to mark on ground,pavement, or other surface a presence or an absence of at least oneunderground facility. The method comprises: A) accessing an electronicrecord of the marking operation generated by a marking device, theelectronic record comprising a plurality of actuation data sets, eachactuation data set associated with a corresponding locate mark createdby an actuation of the marking device, wherein each actuation data setcomprises at least two pieces of geographic information for thecorresponding locate mark; and B) for each actuation data set of theelectronic record, displaying on the display device at least oneelectronic locate mark so as to provide the electronic rendering of themarking operation, based at least in part on the at least two pieces ofgeographic information for the corresponding locate mark.

Another embodiment is directed to a method for providing an electronicrendering on a display device of a marking operation to mark on ground,pavement, or other surface a presence or an absence of at least oneunderground facility. The method comprises: A) accessing an electronicrecord of the marking operation generated by a marking device, theelectronic record comprising a plurality of actuation data sets, eachactuation data set associated with a corresponding locate mark createdby an actuation of the marking device, wherein each actuation data setcomprises at least two pieces of geographic information for thecorresponding locate mark; B) displaying, on the display device, adigital image representative of at least a portion of an area of theground, pavement, or other surface on which the locate mark is created;and C) for at least some actuation data sets of the electronic record,displaying on the display device at least one electronic locate markoverlaid on the displayed digital image so as to provide the electronicrendering of the marking operation, based at least in part on the atleast two pieces of geographic information for the corresponding locatemark and on the displayed digital image.

Another embodiment is directed to at least one computer-readable storagemedium storing an electronic record of a marking operation, theelectronic record comprising a plurality of actuation data sets, eachactuation data set associated with a corresponding actuation of amarking device to dispense a marking material during the markingoperation, wherein at least one first actuation data set of theelectronic record corresponds to a first actuation. The at least onefirst actuation data set comprises: a first field including a firstpiece of geographic information for the first actuation; and at leastone second field including at least one second piece of geographicinformation for the first actuation. In one aspect, the at least onecomputer-readable storage medium is combined with at least one processorto form a machine, wherein the at least one computer-readable storagemedium further stores processor-executable instructions, and wherein theprocessor, upon execution of the processor-executable instructions,accesses at least one of the first field and the at least one secondfield of the at least one first actuation data set. In another aspect,upon execution of the processor-executable instructions by theprocessor, for the at least one first actuation data set, the at leastone processor displays on a display device at least one electroniclocate mark so as to provide an electronic rendering of the markingoperation, based at least in part on the first piece and the at leastone second piece of geographic information for the first actuation.

Another embodiment is directed to a marking apparatus to perform amarking operation. The marking apparatus comprises an actuation system,a memory to store processor-executable instructions, and a processorcoupled to the memory and the actuation system. Upon execution of theprocessor-executable instructions by the processor, the processorprovides an output stream of data packets, each data packet including atleast one flag field that is set or reset upon at least one actuation ofthe actuation system.

Another embodiment is directed to a method for providing informationrelating to a marking operation to mark on ground, pavement, or othersurface a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility.The method comprises: A) effecting at least one actuation of anactuation system of a marking apparatus to dispense a marking materialso as to form at least one locate mark on the ground, pavement or othersurface to mark the presence or the absence of at least one undergroundfacility; and B) providing an output stream of data packets, each datapacket including at least one flag field that is set or reset upon theat least one actuation of the at least one actuation system.

For purposes of the present disclosure, the term “dig area” refers to aspecified area of a work site within in which there is a plan to disturbthe ground (e.g., excavate, dig holes and/or trenches, bore, etc.), andbeyond which there is no plan to excavate in the immediate surroundings.Thus, the metes and bounds of a dig area are intended to providespecificity as to where some disturbance to the ground is planned at agiven work site. It should be appreciated that a given work site mayinclude multiple dig areas.

The term “facility” refers to one or more lines, cables, fibers,conduits, transmitters, receivers, or other physical objects orstructures capable of or used for carrying, transmitting, receiving,storing, and providing utilities, energy, data, substances, and/orservices, and/or any combination thereof. The term “undergroundfacility” means any facility beneath the surface of the ground. Examplesof facilities include, but are not limited to, oil, gas, water, sewer,power, telephone, data transmission, cable television (TV), and/orinternet services.

The term “locate device” refers to any apparatus and/or device fordetecting and/or inferring the presence or absence of any facility,including without limitation, any underground facility.

The term “marking device” refers to any apparatus, mechanism, or otherdevice that employs a marking dispenser for causing a marking materialand/or marking object to be dispensed, or any apparatus, mechanism, orother device for electronically indicating (e.g., logging in memory) alocation, such as a location of an underground facility. Additionally,the term “marking dispenser” refers to any apparatus, mechanism, orother device for dispensing and/or otherwise using, separately or incombination, a marking material and/or a marking object. An example of amarking dispenser may include, but is not limited to, a pressurized canof marking paint. The term “marking material” means any material,substance, compound, and/or element, used or which may be usedseparately or in combination to mark, signify, and/or indicate. Examplesof marking materials may include, but are not limited to, paint, chalk,dye, and/or iron. The term “marking object” means any object and/orobjects used or which may be used separately or in combination to mark,signify, and/or indicate. Examples of marking objects may include, butare not limited to, a flag, a dart, and arrow, and/or an RFID markingball. It is contemplated that marking material may include markingobjects. It is further contemplated that the terms “marking materials”or “marking objects” may be used interchangeably in accordance with thepresent disclosure.

The term “locate mark” means any mark, sign, and/or object employed toindicate the presence or absence of any underground facility. Examplesof locate marks may include, but are not limited to, marks made withmarking materials, marking objects, global positioning or otherinformation, and/or any other means. Locate marks may be represented inany form including, without limitation, physical, visible, electronic,and/or any combination thereof.

The terms “actuate” or “trigger” (verb form) are used interchangeably torefer to starting or causing any device, program, system, and/or anycombination thereof to work, operate, and/or function in response tosome type of signal or stimulus. Examples of actuation signals orstimuli may include, but are not limited to, any local or remote,physical, audible, inaudible, visual, non-visual, electronic,mechanical, electromechanical, biomechanical, biosensing or othersignal, instruction, or event. The terms “actuator” or “trigger” (nounform) are used interchangeably to refer to any method or device used togenerate one or more signals or stimuli to cause or causing actuation.Examples of an actuator/trigger may include, but are not limited to, anyform or combination of a lever, switch, program, processor, screen,microphone for capturing audible commands, and/or other device ormethod. An actuator/trigger may also include, but is not limited to, adevice, software, or program that responds to any movement and/orcondition of a user, such as, but not limited to, eye movement, brainactivity, heart rate, other data, and/or the like, and generates one ormore signals or stimuli in response thereto. In the case of a markingdevice or other marking mechanism (e.g., to physically or electronicallymark a facility or other feature), actuation may cause marking materialto be dispensed, as well as various data relating to the markingoperation (e.g., geographic location, time stamps, characteristics ofmaterial dispensed, etc.) to be logged in an electronic file stored inmemory.

The terms “locate and marking operation,” “locate operation,” and“locate” are used interchangeably and refer to any activity to detect,infer, and/or mark the presence or absence of an underground facility.In some instances, the term “marking operation” is used to morespecifically refer to that portion of a locate operation in which amarking material and/or one or more marking objects is/are employed tomark a presence or an absence of one or more underground facilities. Theterm “locate technician” refers to an individual performing a locateoperation. A locate operation often is specified in connection with adig area, at least a portion of which may be excavated or otherwisedisturbed during excavation activities.

The term “user” refers to an individual utilizing a locate device and/ora marking device and may include, but is not limited to, land surveyors,locate technicians, and support personnel.

The terms “locate request” and “excavation notice” are usedinterchangeably to refer to any communication to request a locate andmarking operation. The term “locate request ticket” (or simply “ticket”)refers to any communication or instruction to perform a locateoperation. A ticket might specify, for example, the address ordescription of a dig area to be marked, the day and/or time that the digarea is to be marked, and/or whether the user is to mark the excavationarea for certain gas, water, sewer, power, telephone, cable television,and/or some other underground facility. The term “historical ticket”refers to past tickets that have been completed.

The term “complex event processing (CEP)” refers to a software and/orhardware-implemented (e.g., facilitated by a computer system,distributed computer system, computational analysis coded in software,and/or a combination thereof) technique relating to recognizing one ormore events, patterns of events, or the absence of an event or patternof events, within one or more input streams of information andperforming one or more actions and/or computations in response to suchrecognition, in accordance with specified rules, criteria, algorithms,or logic. CEP generally involves detection of relationships betweeninformation contained in input streams (which input streams may includeindications of previously recognized events), such as causality,membership, timing, event-driven processes, detection of complexpatterns of one or more events, event streams processing, eventcorrelation and abstraction, and/or event hierarchies. CEP maycomplement and contribute to technologies such as, but not limited to,service oriented architecture (SOA), event driven architecture (EDA),and/or business process management (BPM). CEP allows the informationcontained in the events flowing through all of the layers of a servicebusiness, an enterprise information technology infrastructure and/ormanagement operation to be discovered, analyzed, and understood in termsof its impact on management goals and business processes, and acted uponin real time or as a management process.

It should be appreciated that all combinations of the foregoing conceptsand additional concepts discussed in greater detail below (provided suchconcepts are not mutually inconsistent) are contemplated as being partof the inventive subject matter disclosed herein. In particular, allcombinations of claimed subject matter appearing at the end of thisdisclosure are contemplated as being part of the inventive subjectmatter disclosed herein. It should also be appreciated that terminologyexplicitly employed herein that also may appear in any disclosureincorporated by reference should be accorded a meaning most consistentwith the particular concepts disclosed herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate a conventional marking device in an actuatedand non-actuated state, respectively;

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of a data acquisition systemaccording to one embodiment of the present invention for creatingelectronic records of marking operations based on actuations of amarking device;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the data acquisition system of FIG. 2,illustrating an exemplary marking device according to one embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIGS. 4A and 4B illustrate a portion of an actuation system of themarking device of FIG. 3 according to one embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 5 illustrates various components of an actuation system 120according to other embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of an exemplary marking device being usedfor marking a dotting pattern, according to one embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of an exemplary marking device being usedfor marking a lines pattern, according to one embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 8 is a plan view that shows further details of the lines pattern ofFIG. 7, in connection with the information acquired for purposes ofcreating an electronic record according to one embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method for collecting markinginformation for generation of an electronic record, according to oneembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an exemplary data structure for anelectronic record of a marking operation including information retrievedduring one or more actuations of a marking device, according to oneembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method for displaying a visualrepresentation of a marking operation in a display field having apredetermined scale, according to one embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 12 is an example of a visual representation showing electroniclocate marks based on collected data corresponding to respectiveactuations of a marking device during marking operations, according toone embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is an example of another visual representation of markingoperations, according to one embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 14 is an example of another visual representation of markingoperations, according to another embodiment of the present invention, inwhich electronic locate marks are overlaid on a digital image of a worksite/dig area.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Following below are more detailed descriptions of various conceptsrelated to, and embodiments of, inventive systems, methods and apparatusfor generating electronic records of marking operations based on markingdevice actuations. It should be appreciated that various conceptsintroduced above and discussed in greater detail below may beimplemented in any of numerous ways, as the disclosed concepts are notlimited to any particular manner of implementation. Examples of specificimplementations and applications are provided primarily for illustrativepurposes.

I. Overview

In some embodiments of the present invention, a marking device employedby a locate technician to dispense marking material is particularlyconfigured to acquire “marking information” relating to a markingoperation based at least in part on actuations of the marking device,and create an electronic record of at least some of the markinginformation. As discussed in greater detail below, examples of markinginformation relating to the marking operation that may be logged into anelectronic record may include, but are not limited to:

-   -   timing information (e.g., one or more time stamps) associated        with one or more actuations of the marking device and/or one or        more events occurring during a given actuation;    -   geographic information (e.g., one or more geographic        coordinates) associated with one or more actuations of the        marking device (in some instances, the geographic information        may be accompanied by timing information, such as a time stamp,        for each acquisition of geographic information);    -   marking material information: one or more        aspects/characteristics of a marking material (e.g., a color,        brand, type, serial number, UPC code, weight, inventory        information, etc. associated with the marking material)        dispensed in response to one or more actuations of the marking        device;    -   service-related information: one or more identifiers for the        locate technician performing the marking operation, the marking        device itself (e.g., a serial number of the marking device),        and/or the locate contractor dispatching the locate technician;        and    -   ticket information: information relating to one or more        facilities to be marked, location information (e.g., an address,        geo-coordinates, and/or text description) relating to the work        site and/or dig area in which the locate and marking operation        is performed, excavator information, etc.

One or more electronic records based on the marking information may begenerated, logged/stored in local memory of the marking device,formatted in any of a variety of manners, processed and/or analyzed atthe marking device itself, and/or transmitted to another device (e.g., acomputer) for storage, processing and/or analysis.

In various implementations of the methods and apparatus describedherein, data from one or more electronic records, including multiplepieces of geographical location information (geo-location data), timeand date information, and duration, as well as a total number ofactuations, characteristics of the marking material (e.g., color, brand,type) dispensed during the actuations, and the like, may be processedand analyzed to provide insight into the marking operation. In oneembodiment, a computer-generated image or other visual representation ofthe marking operation may be electronically rendered; for example, thisvisual representation may provide electronic indications (“electroniclocate marks”) of the relative placement of marking material dispensedduring a marking operation, and electronic locate marks corresponding todifferent types of facilities may be color-coded. Such a visualrepresentation of the marking operation may be used, for example, toprovide immediate feedback to the locate technician (e.g., via a displaydevice associated with the marking device), provide essentiallyreal-time feedback to a supervisor monitoring the marking operation froma remote location, provide a visual record of the marking operation(e.g., for archiving purposes, once the marking operation is completedand one or more electronic records are generated), and/or to verify thequality (e.g., accuracy and completeness) of work performed during thelocate and marking operation.

II. Marking Device

FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate a functional block diagram and perspectiveview, respectively, of one example of a data acquisition system 100,including a marking device 110 and optionally a remote computer 150,according to one embodiment of the present invention. One or both of themarking device 110 and the remote computer 150 of the data acquisitionsystem 100 may be configured to sense one or more actuations of themarking device 110 (e.g., to dispense marking material during a markingoperation), and collect information based on one or more actuations ofthe marking device so as to generate an electronic record.

As shown in FIG. 2, in one embodiment marking device 110 includescontrol electronics 112, the components of which are powered by a powersource 114. Power source 114 may be any power source that is suitablefor use in a portable device, such as, but not limited to, one or morerechargeable batteries, one or more non-rechargeable batteries, a solarphotovoltaic panel, a standard AC power plug feeding an AC-to-DCconverter, and the like.

The marking device 110 is configured to hold a marking dispenser 116,which as shown in FIG. 3 is loaded into a marking material holder 140 ofthe marking device 110. In one exemplary implementation, the markingdispenser 116 is an aerosol paint canister that contains paint; however,it should be appreciated that the present invention is not limited inthis respect, as a marking material dispensed by the marking device 110may be any material, substance, compound, and/or element, used to mark,signify, and/or indicate. Examples of marking materials may include, butare not limited to, paint, chalk, dye, and/or marking powder.

As also shown in FIG. 2, in one embodiment control electronics 112 ofmarking device 110 may include, but are not limited to, a processor 118,at least a portion of an actuation system 120 (another portion of whichmay include one or more mechanical elements), a local memory 122, acommunication interface 124, a user interface 126, a timing system 128,and a location tracking system 130.

The processor 118 may be any general-purpose processor, controller, ormicrocontroller device. Local memory 122 may be any volatile ornon-volatile data storage device, such as, but not limited to, a randomaccess memory (RAM) device and a removable memory device (e.g., auniversal serial bus (USB) flash drive). As discussed further below, thelocal memory may store a marking data algorithm 134, which may be a setof processor-executable instructions that when executed by the processor118 causes the processor to control various other components of themarking device 110 so as to generate an electronic record 135 of amarking operation, which record also may be stored in the local memory122 and/or transmitted in essentially real-time (as it is beinggenerated) or after completion of a marking operation to a remote device(e.g., remote computer 150).

In one exemplary implementation, a Linux-based processing system forembedded handheld and/or wireless devices may be employed in the markingdevice 110 to implement various components of the control electronics112. For example, the Fingertip4™ processing system, including a MarvellPXA270 processor and available from InHand Electronics, Inc.(www.inhandelectronics.com/products/fingertip4), may be used. Inaddition to the PXA270 processor (e.g., serving as the processor 118),the Fingertip4™ includes flash memory and SDRAM (e.g., serving as localmemory 122), multiple serial ports, a USB port, and other I/O interfaces(e.g., to facilitate interfacing with one or more input devices andother components of the marking device), supports a variety of wired andwireless interfaces (WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, Ethernet) to facilitateimplementation of the communication interface 124, and connects to awide variety of LCD displays (to facilitate implementation of a userinterface/display).

Communication interface 124 of marking device 110 may be any wiredand/or wireless communication interface by which information may beexchanged between marking device 110 and an external or remote device,such as a remote computing device that is elsewhere in the dig area(i.e., not a part of the marking device 110) or outside the dig area.For example, data that is provided by components of data acquisitionsystem 100 and/or stored in local memory 122 (e.g., one or moreelectronic records 135) may be transmitted via communication interface124 to a remote computer, such as remote computer 150, for processing.Examples of wired communication interfaces may include, but are notlimited to, USB ports, RS232 connectors, RJ45 connectors, Ethernet, andany combination thereof. Examples of wireless communication interfacesmay include, but are not limited to, an Intranet connection, Internet,Bluetooth® technology, Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, IEEE 802.11 technology, radiofrequency (RF), Infrared Data Association (IrDA) compatible protocols,Local Area Networks (LAN), Wide Area Networks (WAN), Shared WirelessAccess Protocol (SWAP), combination thereof, and other types of wirelessnetworking protocols. The wireless interface may be capable of capturingsignals that reflect a user's intent. For example, the wirelessinterface may include a microphone that can capture a user's intent bycapturing the user's audible commands. Alternatively, the wirelessinterface may interact with a device that monitors a condition of theuser, such as eye movement, brain activity, and/or heart rate.

User interface 126 of marking device 110 may be any mechanism orcombination of mechanisms by which a user may operate data acquisitionsystem 100 and by which information that is generated by dataacquisition system 100 may be presented to the user. For example, userinterface 126 may include, but is not limited to, a display device(including integrated displays and external displays, such as Heads-UpDisplays (HUDs)), a touch screen, one or more manual pushbuttons, one ormore light-emitting diode (LED) indicators, one or more toggle switches,a keypad, an audio output (e.g., speaker, buzzer, and alarm), and anycombination thereof. In one implementation, the user interface 126includes a “menu/on” button to power up the marking device and provide amenu-driven graphical user interface (GUI) displayed by the displaydevice (e.g., menu items and/or icons displayed on the display device)and navigated by the technician via a joystick or a set of four“up/down/left/right” buttons, as well as a “select/ok” button to takesome action pursuant to the selection of a menu item/icon. As describedbelow, the display may also be used in some embodiments of the inventionto display information relating to a placement of marking material in adig area, a location of an underground facility in a dig area, or anyother suitable information that may be displayed based on informationacquired to create an electronic record 135.

In various embodiments, the one or more interfaces of the marking device110—including the communication interface 124 and user interface 126—maybe used as input devices to receive information to be stored in thememory 122 as part of an electronic record of a marking operation. Insome cases, marking information received via the interface(s) (e.g., viathe communication interface 124) may include ticket informationregarding underground facilities to be marked during a markingoperation. As another example, using an interface such as the userinterface 126, service-related information may be input, including anidentifier for the marking device used by the technician, an identifierfor a technician, and/or an identifier for the technician's employer.Alternatively, some or all of the service-related information similarlymay be received via the communication interface 124 (and likewise someor all of the ticket information may be received via the user interface126).

The actuation system 120 of marking device 110 shown in the blockdiagram of FIG. 2 may include both electrical and mechanical elementsaccording to various embodiments discussed in further detail below, andfor purposes of illustration is shown in FIG. 2 as included as part ofthe control electronics 112. The actuation system 120 may include amechanical and/or electrical actuator mechanism (e.g., see the actuator142 shown in FIG. 3) to provide one or more signals or stimuli as aninput to the actuation system 120. Upon receiving one or more signals orstimuli (e.g., actuation/triggering by a locate technician or otheruser), the actuation system 120 causes marking material to be dispensedfrom marking dispenser 116. In various embodiments, the actuation system120 may employ any of a variety of mechanical and/or electricaltechniques (e.g., one or more switches or other circuit components, adedicated processor or the processor 118 executing instructions, one ormore mechanical elements, various types of transmitters and receivers,or any combination of the foregoing), as would be readily appreciated bythose of skill in the relevant arts, to cause the marking dispenser 116to dispense marking material in response to one or more signals orstimuli. The actuation system 120 also provides one or more outputsignals in the form of an actuation signal 121 to the processor 118 toindicate one or more actuations of the marking device, in response towhich the processor 118 may acquire/collect various marking informationand log data into the electronic record 135. Additional details ofexemplary actuation system implementations are provided below inconnection with FIGS. 3 through 5.

In some embodiments, the actuation system 120 may be configured so asnot to cause marking material to be dispensed from marking dispenser 116in response to one or more signals or stimuli; rather, the actuationsystem may merely facilitate a logging of data from one or more inputdevices in response to operation of an actuator/trigger, withoutnecessarily dispensing marking material. In some instances, this mayfacilitate “simulation” of a marking operation (i.e., simulating thedispensing of marking material) by providing an actuation signal 121 tothe processor 118 indicating one or more simulated actuation events, inresponse to which the processor may cause the logging of various datafor creating an electronic record without any marking material actuallybeing dispensed.

Location tracking system 130 of marking device 110 constitutes anothertype of input device that provides marking information, and may includeany device that can determine its geographical location to a certaindegree of accuracy. For example, location tracking system 130 mayinclude a global positioning system (GPS) receiver or a globalnavigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver. A GPS receiver may provide,for example, any standard format data stream, such as a National MarineElectronics Association (NMEA) data stream, or other data formats. Anerror correction component 131 may be, but is not limited to, anymechanism for improving the accuracy of the geographic informationprovided by location tracking system 130; for example, error correctioncomponent 131 may be an algorithm for correcting any offsets (e.g., dueto local disturbances in the atmosphere) in the geo-location data oflocation tracking system 130. While shown as part of a local locationtracking system of the marking device 110, error correction component131 alternatively may reside at a remote computing device, such asremote computer 150. In other embodiments, location tracking system 130may include any device or mechanism that may determine location by anyother means, such as performing triangulation by use of cellularradiotelephone towers.

In one exemplary implementation, the location tracking system 130 mayinclude an ISM300F2-C5-V0005 GPS module available from Inventek Systems,LLC of Westford, Mass. (seewww.inventeksys.com/html/ism300f2-c5-v0005.html). The Inventek GPSmodule includes two UARTs (universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter)for communication with the processor 118, supports both the SIRF Binaryand NMEA-0183 protocols (depending on firmware selection), and has aninformation update rate of 5 Hz. A variety of geographic locationinformation may be requested by the processor 118 and provided by theGPS module to the processor 118 including, but not limited to, time(coordinated universal time—UTC), date, latitude, north/south indicator,longitude, east/west indicator, number and identification of satellitesused in the position solution, number and identification of GPSsatellites in view and their elevation, azimuth and SNR values, anddilution of precision values. Accordingly, it should be appreciated thatin some implementations the location tracking system 130 may provide awide variety of geographic information as well as timing information(e.g., one or more time stamps) to the processor 118.

In another embodiment, location tracking system 130 may not residelocally on marking device 110. Instead, location tracking system 130 mayreside on any on-site computer, which serves as a location referencepoint, to which the location of marking device 110 may be correlated byany other means, such as, but not limited to, by a triangulationtechnique between the on-site computer and marking device 110.

With respect to other input devices of the marking device 110 that mayprovide marking information, the control electronics 112 may alsoinclude a timing system 128 having an internal clock (not shown), suchas a crystal oscillator device, for processor 118. Additionally, timingsystem 128 may include a mechanism for registering time with a certaindegree of accuracy (e.g., accuracy to the minute, second, ormillisecond) and may also include a mechanism for registering thecalendar date. In various implementations, the timing system 128 may becapable of registering the time and date using its internal clock, oralternatively timing system 128 may receive its time and dateinformation from the location tracking system 130 (e.g., a GPS system)or from an external timing system, such as a remote computer or network,via communication interface 124. In yet other implementations, adedicated timing system for providing timing information to be logged inan electronic record 135 may be optional, and timing information forlogging into an electronic record may be obtained from the locationtracking system 130 (e.g., GPS latitude and longitude coordinates with acorresponding time stamp).

Marking material detection mechanism 132 of the marking device 110 shownin FIG. 2 is another type of input device that provides markinginformation, and may be any mechanism or mechanisms for determining apresence or absence of a marking dispenser 116 in or otherwise coupledto the marking device 110, as well as determining certainattributes/characteristics of the marking material within markingdispenser 116 when the dispenser is placed in or coupled to the markingdevice. As shown in FIG. 3, in some embodiments the marking materialdetection mechanism 132 may be disposed generally in an area proximateto a marking material holder 140 in which a marking dispenser 116 may beplaced.

For example, in one embodiment, the marking material detection mechanism132 may include one or more switch devices (e.g., a make/break singlepole/single throw contact switch) disposed at one or more points alongthe marking material holder 140 and electrically coupled to theprocessor 118. The switch device(s) may also be coupled to ground or aDC supply voltage, such that when the switch device is in a first state(e.g., closed/making contact) the ground or DC supply voltage is passedto the processor 118 (e.g., via an I/O pin of the processor whichprovides an interrupt to, or is periodically monitored by, theprocessor), and when the switch is in a second state (e.g., open/nocontact) the ground or DC supply voltage is not passed to the processor118. When the marking dispenser 116 is present in the holder 140, theswitch device(s) is in one of two possible states and when there is nomarking dispenser the switch device(s) is in another of the two possiblestates (e.g., the marking dispenser, when present, may depress theswitch device(s) so as to make contact and pass the ground/DC voltage tothe processor). In this manner, the marking material detection mechanism132 may provide a signal to the processor indicating the presence orabsence of the marking dispenser 116 in the marking device 110.

The marking material detection mechanism 132 also or alternatively mayinclude a barcode reader to read barcode data from a dispenser 116and/or a radio-frequency identification (RFID) reader for readinginformation from an RFID tag that is provided on marking dispenser 116.The RFID tag may include, for example, a unique serial number oruniversal product code (UPC) that corresponds to the brand and/or typeof marking material in marking dispenser 116. The type of informationthat may be encoded within the RFID tag on marking dispenser 116 mayinclude product-specific information for the marking material, but anyinformation of interest may be stored on an RFID tag. For example,user-specific information and/or inventory-related information may bestored on each RFID tag for a marking dispenser 116 to facilitateinventory tracking of marking materials. In particular, an identifierfor a technician may be stored on an RFID tag when the technician isprovided with a marking dispenser 116, and information relating toweight, amount dispensed, and/or amount remaining may be written to theRFID tag whenever the marking dispenser is used.

In one exemplary implementation, the marking material detectionmechanism 132 may include a Micro RWD MIFARE-ICODE RFID reader moduleavailable from IB Technology (Eccel Technology Ltd) of Aylesbury,Buckinghamshire, UK (see www.ibtechnology.co.uk/products/icode.htm). TheMicro RWD reader module includes an RS232 communication interface tofacilitate communication between the processor 118 and the reader module(e.g., via messages sent as a string of ASCII characters), and supportsboth reading information from an RFID tag attached to a markingdispenser as well as writing information to an RFID tag attached to themarking dispenser. In one aspect of an exemplary implementation, anantenna constituted by one or more turns of wire (e.g., two turns of awg26 wire, 6.5 cm in diameter, about 1 uH) is coupled to the Micro RWDreader module and disposed in the marking material holder 140 of themarking device 110 (see FIG. 3), proximate to a marking dispenser 116when placed in the holder 140, so as to capture close near field signals(e.g., from an RFID tag on the dispenser, within about 2 inches) andexclude far field signals. In another aspect, the Micro RWD readermodule may be configured to read RFID tags having an ICODE SLI format(e.g., ISO 15693 ICODE SLI). In yet another aspect, an RFID tag may beaffixed to an aerosol paint can serving as the marking dispenser, suchthat the tag conforms to a plastic cap of the paint can and is disposedat a particular location relative to a notch in the cap (e.g., 90degrees +/−15 degrees from the notch) that allows access to the spraynozzle of the can and is in a relatively predictable positionsubstantially aligned with the antenna when the paint can is placed inthe marking material holder 140. Examples of RFID tags suitable for thispurpose are available from BCS Solutions, Inc. (seewww.bcssolutions.com/solutions/rfid) and include, but are not limitedto, the HF Bullseye Wet Inlay SLA Round 40.

In yet other embodiments, marking material detection mechanism 132 mayalternatively or further be configured to detect properties of markingmaterial as it is dispensed. For example, the marking material detectionmechanism may include one or more of an optical sensor, an olfactorysensor, an auditory sensor (e.g., a microphone), a weight sensor, andany combination thereof. For example, in one embodiment an opticalsensor in the marking device may be used to identify the compositionand/or type of marking material in the marking dispenser by analyzinglight reflected by the material as it is dispensed. Similarly, anolfactory sensor may be used to identify one or more characteristics ofthe marking material based on an odor profile of the material, and anauditory sensor may be used to identify the difference between paintbeing sprayed from an aerosol can and aerosol without paint beingsprayed from a can (e.g., as the dispenser becomes emptied of paint).

In one embodiment, information provided by one or more input devices ofthe marking device 110 (e.g., the timing system 128, the locationtracking system 130, the marking material detection mechanism 132, theuser interface 126, the communication interface 124) is acquired andlogged (stored in memory) upon actuation of the actuation system 120(e.g., triggering an actuator). Some embodiments of the invention mayadditionally or alternatively acquire/log information from one or moreinput devices at one or more times during or throughout an actuation,such as when a technician is holding a mechanical or electrical actuatorfor some period of time and moving to dispense marking material in aline (e.g., see FIG. 7). In various aspects of such embodiments, markinginformation derived from one or more input devices may be collected at astart time of an actuation, at one or more times during an actuation,and in some cases at regular intervals during an actuation (e.g.,several times per second, once per second, once every few seconds).Further, some marking information may be collected at an end of anactuation, such as time information that may indicate a duration of anactuation.

Additionally, it should be appreciated that while some markinginformation may be received via one or more input devices at the startof each marking operation and upon successive actuations of the markingdevice, in other cases some marking information may be collected by orprovided to the marking device once, prior to a marking operation (e.g.,on power-up or reset of the marking device, as part of an electronicinstruction or dispatch by a locate company, and/or in response to arequest/query from a locate technician), and stored in local memory 122for later incorporation into an electronic record. For example, prior toa given marking operation and one or more actuations of the markingdevice, ticket information and/or service-related information may havealready been received (e.g., via the communication interface 124 and/oruser interface 126) and stored in local memory 122. Upon generation ofan electronic record of a given marking operation, informationpreviously received via the interface(s) may be retrieved from the localmemory (if stored there initially) and entered into an electronicrecord, in some case together with information collected pursuant to oneor more actuations of the marking device. Alternatively, ticketinformation and/or service-related information may be received via theinterface(s) and stored in an entry in the electronic record 135“directly” in response to one or more actuations of the marking device(e.g., without being first stored in local memory).

In sum, according to embodiments of the present invention, variousmarking information from one or more input devices, regardless of how orwhen it is received, may be stored in an electronic record of a markingoperation, in which at least some of the marking information is loggedpursuant to one or more actuations of the marking device.

In one embodiment, the optional remote computer 150 of the dataacquisition system 100 may be a centralized computer, such as a centralserver of an underground facility locate service provider. In anotherembodiment, remote computer 150 may be a computer that is at or near thework site (i.e., “on-site”), e.g., a computer that is present in alocate technician's vehicle.

Whether resident and/or executed on either the marking device 110 or theremote computer 150, as noted above the marking data algorithm 134includes a set of processor-executable instructions (e.g., stored inmemory, such as local memory 122 of the marking device) that, whenexecuted by processor 118 of the marking device 110 or anotherprocessor, processes information (e.g., various marking information)collected in response to (e.g., during) one or more actuations of themarking device 110, and/or in some cases before or after a givenactuation or series of actuations. As also discussed above, according tovarious embodiments the actuations of marking device 110 may effect bothdispensing marking material and logging of marking information, ormerely logging of marking information for other purposes (e.g.,simulating the dispensing of marking material) without dispensingmarking material. In either situation, marking data algorithm 134, whenexecuted by the processor 118, may cause the processor to performcollection, logging/storage (creation of electronic records), and insome instances further processing and analysis of various markinginformation with respect to marking device actuations. For example, asdiscussed in further detail below in connection with FIG. 9, theoperations of marking data algorithm 134 as effected by the processor118 may include, but are not limited to, the following:

-   -   (1) reading in (acquiring) data that is generated by any        component (e.g., one or more input devices); for example, data        may be read in that is acquired at a start of a given actuation,        throughout the duration of the actuation, at the end of the        actuation, before or after the actuation, and any combination        thereof;    -   (2) processing the information that is collected and associating        the collected information with respective actuations; for        example, any information collected may be parsed/packaged so as        to be associated with any one or more actuations of the marking        device, irrespective of when the data was actually acquired;    -   (3) formatting the acquired information, e.g., as multiple        time-stamped event entries constituting actuation data sets        forming an electronic record, wherein each actuation data set        corresponds to a particular actuation; and    -   (4) using respective actuation data sets of an electronic record        to visually recreate the marking operation (e.g., render a        computer-generated representation in a display field, wherein        respective actuation data sets correspond to electronic locate        marks).

It should also be appreciated that the marking data algorithm 134 mayinclude one or more adjustable parameters that govern various aspects ofthe collection and logging of marking information (e.g., the rate atwhich various marking information is collected from one or more inputdevices), and that these parameters may be adjusted or set, for example,by an administrator at a remote computer, after which the marking dataalgorithm is downloaded to the marking device for execution by theprocessor 118. Alternatively, in other implementations, adjustableparameters of a marking data algorithm already resident on a markingdevice may in some cases be adjusted remotely via the communicationinterface, or locally via the user interface.

While the functionality of various components of the marking device 110was discussed above in connection with FIG. 2, FIG. 3 shows somestructural aspects of the marking device 110 according to oneembodiment. For example, the marking device 110 may include an elongatedhousing 136 in which is disposed one or more elements of the actuationsystem 120, one or more elements of the control electronics 112 and thepower source 114. Elongated housing 136 may be hollow or may containcertain cavities or molded compartments for installing any componentstherein, such as the various components of marking device 110 that areshown in FIG. 2. The elongated housing 136 and other structural elementsassociated with the housing, as discussed below, may be formed of anyrigid, semi-rigid, strong, and lightweight material, such as, but notlimited to, molded plastic and aluminum.

Incorporated at a proximal end of elongated housing 136 may be a handle138, which provides a convenient grip by which the user (e.g., thelocate technician) may carry the marking device 110 during use (i.e.,the exemplary marking device depicted in FIG. 3 is intended to be ahand-held device). In one implementation, the power source 114 may beprovided in the form of a removable battery pack housing one or morerechargeable batteries that are connected in series or parallel in orderto provide a DC voltage to marking device 110, and disposed within acompartment in the handle 138. Such an arrangement facilitates use ofconventional removable/rechargeable battery packs often employed in avariety of cordless power tools, in which the battery pack similarly issituated in a handle of the tool. It should be appreciated, however,that the power source 114 in the form of a battery pack may be disposedin any of a variety of locations within or coupled to the elongatedhousing 136.

As also shown in FIG. 3, mounted near handle 138 is user interface 126,which may include a display 146. The display 146 may be a touch screendisplay to facilitate interaction with a user/technician, and/or theuser interface also may include one or more buttons, switches,joysticks, a keyboard, and the like to facilitate entry of informationby a user/technician. One or more elements of the control electronics112 (e.g., the processor 118, memory 122, communication interface 124,and timing system 128) also may be located in the proximal end of theelongated housing in the vicinity of the user interface 126 and display146. As with the power source 114, it should be appreciated that one ormore elements of the control electronics 112 may be disposed in any of avariety of locations within or coupled to the elongated housing 136.

In the embodiment of FIG. 3, the location tracking system 130 similarlymay be positioned on the proximal end of the elongated housing 136 tofacilitate substantially unobstructed exposure to the atmosphere; inparticular, as illustrated in FIG. 3, the location tracking system 130may be situated on an a ground plane 133 (providing an electrical groundat least at the antenna frequency of the location tracking system, e.g.,at approximately 1.5 GHz) that extends from the proximal end of thehousing 136 and is approximately parallel to the ground, surface orpavement when the marking device is being normally operated by atechnician (so as to reduce signal modulation with subtle movements ofthe marking device).

As also shown in FIG. 3, incorporated at the distal end of elongatedhousing 136 is a marking dispenser holder 140 for holding one or moremarking dispensers 116 (e.g., an aerosol paint canister). Dispenser 116may be one or more replaceable dispensers or one or more reusablerefillable dispensers (including a fixed reservoir forming a part of thedevice 110) or any other suitable dispenser. Also situated at the distalend of the housing is the marking material detection mechanism 132 todetect a presence or absence of the marking dispenser 116 in the markingmaterial holder 140, and/or one or more characteristics of the markingmaterial 148, as well as an actuation mechanism 158, which in someimplementations may constitute part of the actuation system 120 and beemployed to interact with the marking dispenser 116 so as to effectdispensing of the marking material 148.

With respect to the actuation system 120, as shown in FIG. 3, at least aportion of the actuation system 120 is indicated generally along thelength of the elongated housing for purposes of illustration. Morespecifically, however, in various implementations the actuation system120 may include multiple components disposed in various places in, on orcoupled to the marking device 110. For example, in the embodiment ofFIG. 3, the actuation system 120 includes an actuator 142, which forexample may be a mechanical mechanism provided at the handle 138 in theform of a trigger that is pulled by a finger or hand of anuser/technician. The actuation system 120 further includes the actuationmechanism 158 disposed at the distal end of the marking device that isresponsive to the actuator 142 to dispense marking material. In general,in various exemplary implementations as discussed in further detailbelow, the actuation system 120 may employ any of a variety ofmechanical and/or electrical techniques to cause the marking dispenser116 to dispense marking material 148 in response to one or more signalsor stimuli. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the signal/stimulus isinitially provided to the actuation system via the mechanical actuator142; i.e., a locate technician or other user triggers (e.g.,pulls/depresses) the actuator 142 to provide a signal/stimulus to theactuation system 120, which in turn operates the actuation mechanism 158to dispense marking material in response to the signal/stimulus.

In response to the signal/stimulus provided by the actuator 142, asdiscussed above the actuation system may also provide an actuationsignal 121 to the processor 118 to indicate an actuation. As discussedin further detail below in connection with FIG. 9, pursuant to theexecution by the processor 118 of the marking data algorithm 134, theactuation signal 121 may be used to cause the logging of informationthat is provided by one or more components of the marking device 110 soas to generate an electronic record of the marking operation.

FIGS. 4A and 4B illustrate a portion of the actuation system 120according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4A shows theactuator 142 in an un-actuated state, whereas FIG. 4B shows the actuator142 in an actuated state (in which a signal/stimulus is provided by theactuator). In the example of FIGS. 4A and 4B, the actuator 142 iscoupled to a mechanical coupler 152, similar to that shown in FIGS. 1Aand 1B, which extends along a length of the elongated housing and is inturn coupled to a mechanical actuation mechanism 158 at the distal endof the housing (not shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B) that ultimately effectsdispensing of marking material when the actuator is in the actuatedstate. The portion of the actuation system 120 shown in FIGS. 4A and 4Balso includes a sensor 160 which is configured to provide an actuationsignal 121 to the processor 118 to indicate one or both of therespective actuated and un-actuated states of the actuator 142.

In one implementation, the sensor 160 may include a switch device (e.g.,a make/break single pole/single throw contact switch) disposed along thehandle 138 of the marking device such that, when pulled, the actuatorcontacts (e.g., depresses) the switch causing a state of the switch totoggle. In another implementation, the sensor 160 may include a switchdevice such as a reed (magnetic) switch disposed at some point along thelength of the elongated housing; in such an implementation, themechanical coupler 152 may have a magnet disposed along it at anappropriate position relative to the reed switch, such that movement ofthe mechanical coupler 152 upon actuation of the actuator 142 causes astate of the reed switch to toggle. Electrically, a switch deviceserving as the sensor 160 may be coupled to ground or a DC supplyvoltage, such that when the switch device is in a first state (e.g.,closed/making contact) the ground or DC supply voltage is passed to theprocessor 118 (e.g., via an I/O pin of the processor which provides aninterrupt to, or is periodically monitored by, the processor), and whenthe switch is in a second state (e.g., open/no contact) the ground or DCsupply voltage is not passed to the processor 118. In this manner, thesensor 160 may provide the actuation signal 121 to the processorindicating actuation (and release) of the actuator 142.

FIG. 5 illustrates various components of an actuation system 120according to other embodiments of the present invention. Generallyspeaking, the actuation system 120 may include the actuator 142, thesensor 160 to detect actuation and release of the actuator 142 (and alsoprovide a corresponding actuation signal 121 representing same to theprocessor 118), a link transmitter 168 coupled and responsive to thesensor 160 to transmit one or more signals and/or other stimulus via anactuation link 164, and a link receiver 162 to receive the one or moresignals and/or other stimulus from the actuation link 164 and, inresponse to same, operate the actuation mechanism 158. The linktransmitter 168, the link 164, and the link receiver 162 may include oneor more electrical and/or mechanical components.

For example, the link receiver 162 may include a linear solenoidmechanically coupled to the actuation mechanism 158 and whose movementis responsive to one or more signals and/or stimuli received from thelink 164. In various exemplary implementations, the link transmitter 168and the link 164 simply may include a wire that couples the sensor 160to the solenoid to activate the solenoid upon changes of state in theactuation signal 121. Alternatively, the transmitter 168 may be an RFtransmitter that is activated in response to the actuation signal 121,the link 164 may be a wireless link, and the receiver 162 may include anRF receiver.

Other examples of transmitter/link/receiver combinations include, butare not limited to, an acoustic transmitter/link/receiver (e.g., a soundwave source that provides a sound wave of a certain tone, duration,and/or amplitude when the actuator is actuated, and a correspondingsound wave detector), an optical transmitter/link/receiver (e.g., alight or laser source that provides an optical signal of a certainwavelength, duration, and/or amplitude when the actuator is actuated,and a corresponding optical detector), a fluid transmitter/link/receiver(e.g., a fluid system that provides a fluid control output of a certainvolume, pressure, and/or duration when the actuator is actuated, and acorresponding fluid sensor for sensing the presence of, for example, ashort blast of water of a certain volume, pressure, and/or duration toindicate an actuation; the fluid system may be, for example, aclosed-loop system that has a source reservoir at the top of the markingdevice, a fluid line in proximity with the fluid sensor, a returnreservoir for capturing water during the actuation process, andappropriate pressure regulation and ducts for cycling water from thereturn reservoir back to the source reservoir), and an airtransmitter/link/receiver (e.g., an air system that provides an aircontrol output of a certain volume, pressure, and/or duration when theactuator is actuated, and a corresponding air sensor for sensing thepresence of, for example, a blast or puff of air of a certain volume,pressure, and/or duration to indicate an actuation).

While not explicitly shown in FIG. 5, in yet other embodiments it shouldbe appreciated that the sensor 160 may be coupled to the processor 118(to provide the actuation signal 121 representing actuation/release ofthe actuator), and in turn the processor may provide a signal to thelink transmitter 168, such that dispensing of marking material may inpart be under the control of the processor 118 executing particularinstructions for this purpose. More specifically, while in someimplementations dispensing of marking material may be directlyresponsive to actuation of the actuator (and cease upon release of theactuator), in other implementations dispensing of marking material maybe initiated in some manner upon actuation of the actuator, but thencontinued dispensing of marking material may not necessarily be dictatedby continued actuation, or release, of the actuator. Rather, theprocessor 118 may provide one or more signals or commands to the linktransmitter 168 to govern dispensing of marking material in some mannerthat does not necessarily track each actuation and release of theactuator.

For example, in one implementation the processor 118 may executeinstructions such that, once the actuation signal 121 from the sensor160 indicates actuation of the actuator, the processor 118 provides asignal to the link transmitter 168 that causes dispensing of markingmaterial for some predetermined or user-defined amount of time,irrespective of release of the actuator. Additionally or alternatively,the processor may provide one or more signals to the link transmitter168 that causes dispensing of marking material for multiple discreteamounts of time with a single actuation (e.g., three bursts of 1 secondeach per actuation). From the foregoing, it should be generallyappreciated that a wide variety of marker sizes and patterns may begenerated from the marking device in an automated or semi-automatedmanner based on processor-based control of the actuation system 120. Itshould also be appreciated that automated or semi-automatedprocessor-based control of the dispensing of marking material may alsogovern in some fashion how, how often, and/or what type of markinginformation is collected and logged to generate an electronic record ofa marking operation, as discussed further below in connection with FIG.9.

III. Exemplary Marking Techniques

FIGS. 6 and 7 provide examples of how the marking device 110 shown inFIGS. 2 and 3 may be employed by a technician during a markingoperation. Referring now to FIG. 6, a perspective view of marking device110 when in use for marking a “dotting pattern” is presented. In markingoperations, a dotting pattern may be utilized to preliminarily andquickly indicate the presence or absence of a target facility during aninitial locate of a target facility. By way of example, FIG. 6 shows anunderground facility 310, which may be any facility, such as anunderground gas line, water pipe, sewer pipe, power line, telephoneline, cable television conduit, and the like. FIG. 6 also shows adotting pattern 312 that is formed by multiple locate marks 314dispensed via marking device 110. The locate marks 314 of dottingpattern 312 are formed by successive short bursts of marking material(e.g., brief actuations); i.e., each locate mark 314 corresponds to onebrief actuation of the marking device 110.

Referring now to FIG. 7, a perspective view of marking device 110 whenin use for marking a “lines pattern” is presented. In markingoperations, a lines pattern is typically the end product of a markingoperation. This pattern extends the dotting pattern (e.g., dottingpattern 312 of FIG. 6) so as to create lines (e.g., a series of dashes)that indicate the presence or absence of an underground facility. Theselines subsequently provide important reference marks to an excavator soas to avoid damage to a facility during excavation activities or otherdisturbances of the ground. By way of example, FIG. 7 shows undergroundfacility 310, which may be any concealed facility, such as anunderground gas line, water pipe, sewer pipe, power line, telephoneline, cable television conduit, and the like. FIG. 7 also shows a linespattern 412 that is formed by multiple locate marks 414 dispensed viamarking device 110. A characteristic of locate marks 414 of linespattern 412 is that each locate mark 414 is formed by an extended burstof marking material (e.g., a longer actuation of the marking device) ascompared with a dotting pattern. As with the dotting pattern shown inFIG. 6, however, each locate mark 414 of the lines pattern shown in FIG.7 may correspond to one actuation of marking device 110. In somealternative implementations, as discussed above, a series of locatemarks (e.g., all three marks 414) may be automatically generated by oneactuation of marking device 110 pursuant to processor-based control ofthe actuation system.

FIG. 8 illustrates a plan view that shows further details of the linespattern 412 of FIG. 7. In the example of FIG. 8, each locate mark 414-1,414-2, and 414-3 corresponds to one actuation (“act”) of marking device110, i.e., locate mark 414-1 corresponds to act-1, locate mark 414-2corresponds to act-2, and locate mark 414-3 corresponds to act-3.Furthermore, each actuation and its corresponding locate mark 412 has astart time t1, an end time t2, and a duration (Δt). While FIG. 8 showsthree locate marks, it should be appreciated that lines pattern 412 maybe formed by any number of locate marks.

IV. Format, Content and Process of Generating Electronic Records ofMarking Operations

In one embodiment of the present invention for generating an electronicrecord of a marking operation, the processor 118 of the marking device110, executing the marking data algorithm 134, may collect variousmarking information and generate an electronic record having one or more“actuation data sets” respectively associated with one or moreactuations (act-1, act-2, act-3 . . . act-n) and corresponding locatemarks, as shown in FIG. 8. Marking information may be collected andentered into such an electronic record at various times relative to thestart time t1 and the end time t2 of a given actuation, e.g., at t1only, at t2 only, at both t1 and t2, at any time(s) between t1 and t2,and/or before or after t1 and t2.

Examples of marking information that generally (but not necessarily) isacquired with respect to t1 and t2 of each actuation, and points betweent1 and t2 (“actuation data”), may include, but are not limited to:

-   -   (1) timing information: time and date for one or both of t1 and        t2 (hereinafter also referred to as “time stamp data”), and/or        duration (Δt) of the actuation, which may be provided in some        instances by timing system 128; and    -   (2) geographic information: latitude and longitude data from        location tracking system 130 (hereinafter also referred to as        “geo-location data”) (e.g., GPS data may be expressed in        degrees, minutes, and seconds (i.e., DDD°, MM′, and SS.S″),        degrees and decimal minutes (DDD° and MM.MMM′), or decimal        degrees)) (DDD.DDDDD°.

Examples of marking information that may be acquired before, during orafter a given actuation or succession of actuations, and also enteredinto an electronic record, include, but are not limited to:

-   -   (3) marking material information, such as the presence, color,        brand and/or type of dispensed marking material or a simulated        dispensing of such marking material (i.e., hereinafter also        referred to as “product data”);    -   (4) service-related information: identification (ID) number of        the locate service provider (e.g., a party/company who        dispatches the locate technician, hereinafter also referred to        as “service provider ID”); ID number of the user and/or        technician (hereinafter also referred to as “user ID”); ID        number of the marking device being used for the marking        operation (hereinafter also referred to as “device ID”); and    -   (5) ticket information, such as the requesting party, type of        facility requested to be marked by the requesting party, and        address of the work site/dig area for the marking operation        (hereinafter also referred to as “locate request data”). Ticket        information may be received as, or derived from, a locate        request ticket or any other suitable source.

In exemplary methods for generating an electronic record of markingoperations according to some embodiments of the invention, as discussedin greater detail below, for a given actuation the processor 118 mayrequest the location tracking system 130 to provide geographicinformation at one or more times during the actuation (e.g.,periodically at regular intervals). Thus, an actuation data set of anelectronic record for a given actuation of the marking device may havemultiple pieces of geographic information (and associated time stamps)representing the location of the marking device at multiple times duringa corresponding actuation. Additionally, for a given actuation, theprocessor 118 also may request the marking material detection mechanism132 to provide marking material information as part of the actuationdata set. The processor also may include ticket information andservice-related information, which may be collected (e.g., via one ormore of the user interface 126 and the communication interface 124)before a corresponding actuation, stored in memory 122 and retrievedfrom the memory for entry into the electronic record upon or during thecorresponding actuation, or collected and entered into the electronicrecord upon or during the corresponding actuation.

While the collection and logging of marking information to generate anelectronic record is discussed in some aspects, for purposes ofillustration, in terms of actuation data sets (i.e., a set of data thatis associated and logged with a corresponding actuation of the markingdevice), it should be appreciated that various embodiments of thepresent invention are not limited in this respect. More generally, anelectronic record of a marking operation may be generated in any of avariety of manners, have a variety of file formats and/or datastructures, and include any of a variety of marking information (some ofwhich may be germane to one or more actuations of the marking device andsome of which may be common to multiple actuations or the overallmarking operation in general).

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of an exemplary process 600 for collectingmarking information during operation of a marking device 110 andgenerating an electronic record, according to one embodiment of thepresent invention. It should be appreciated that as various markinginformation is collected and logged in the process 600, such markinginformation also may be transmitted from the marking device (e.g., toremote computer 150) to facilitate essentially real-time monitoring ofthe marking operation, and/or remote generation of an electronic recordof the marking operation.

In block 602 of the process 600 shown in FIG. 9, ticket informationand/or service-related information may be received (e.g., via one ormore of the user interface 126 and the communication interface 124 ofmarking device 110) and this information optionally may be stored inwhole or in part in local memory 122 of the marking device. The ticketinformation and/or service-related information may be receivedelectronically in any of a variety of formats, and the processor may beconfigured to appropriately parse the information for subsequent entryinto an electronic record. For example, in some embodiments, the ticketinformation may be received as part of an electronic locate requestticket, and individual respective pieces of ticket information (e.g.,ticket number, work site address information, requesting party, etc.)may be extracted or derived from the electronic locate request ticket.In other embodiments, various aspects of ticket information may be inputby a user/technician via the user interface. Similarly, with respect toservice-related information, a user/technician may manually enter someaspects of this information, while other aspects may already beavailable in other memory locations (e.g., the marking device ID orserial number, a technician ID to which the marking device is assignedor checked-out, etc.). Accordingly, while block 602 is illustrated asone element of the process 600, it should be appreciated that respectivepieces of information received as input in block 602 may be received atdifferent times and via different interfaces/sources.

In block 604, the locate technician utilizes the user interface 126 toindicate the initiation of a marking operation. For example, thetechnician may press a button, operate a joy-stick, or touch a touchscreen display portion of a graphical user interface to commence amarking operation. In response, a “job initiation signal” is provided tothe processor 118 (e.g., via a switch closure and a ground or DC levelapplied to an I/O pin of the processor, or by the user interfaceproviding a signal to the processor) to initiate generation of anelectronic record. Alternatively, a remote job initiation signal may bereceived by the processor via the communication interface from anotherdevice, such as the remote computer 150.

In response to the job initiation signal, in block 606 the processoropens a file in the memory 122 in which to store the electronic record135, and assigns a file identifier to the opened file. In one example,the file identifier assigned to the opened file may be or include one ormore of a job number (“job ID”) or ticket number derived from the ticketinformation and/or the service-related information, an identifier forthe marking device itself, and an identifier for a remote computerassociated with the marking device (e.g., for either remote controloperation of the device and/or data uploading/downloading). To this end,if ticket information and/or service-related information is notpreviously available (e.g., if no information is received in block 602),the technician optionally may be prompted to manually enter (e.g., via a“wizard” or sequence of dialogues germane to obtaining relevantinformation displayed on the display of the user interface) variouselements of ticket information and/or service-related information fromwhich a file identifier may be derived, or provide other informationthat may be used as a file identifier.

A file opened in block 606 for purposes of storing an electronic recordmay have any of a variety of formats and include any of a variety ofdata structures. In one embodiment, the processor initially opens up a“flat file” for collection and logging of marking information tofacilitate generation of an electronic record. As known in the art, aflat file is a plain text or mixed text/binary file containing one entry(data record) per line, in which each entry may have multiple fieldscontaining respective values, and wherein the respective values may beseparated by delimiters (e.g., commas) or have a fixed length. In oneexemplary implementation, the processor 118 logs data into a flat fileopened for the electronic record as a succession of time stamped “evententries.” Some event entries may be related specifically to actuationand/or logged in response to actuation of the marking device (e.g., theprocessor 118 receiving an actuation signal 121). Other event entriesmay be more generally related in some manner to overall operation of themarking device or the marking operation itself, but not necessarilyassociated with one or more particular actuations (e.g.,start/pause/stop marking operation, power/battery status, communicationlink/network connection status, etc.), and these other event entries maybe logged at virtually any time (in some cases irrespective of one ormore actuations).

Accordingly, it should be appreciated that in one aspect of thisembodiment a flat file for an electronic record may contain a successionof time stamped event entries on respective lines, in which one or moreevent entries may have multiple delimited fields/values and at leastsome of the event entries relate to actuation of the marking device. Inanother aspect, one or more fields/values in a given event entry mayspecifically indicate in some manner whether or not the event isassociated with an actuation of the marking device. In general, an“actuation event entry” constitutes an entry in a file for an electronicrecord that is in some manner specifically related to, and/or logged inresponse to or during, actuation of the marking device, and multipleactuation event entries for a given actuation constitute an actuationdata set for that actuation. Again, it should be appreciated that a filefor an electronic record may include one or more other event entriesthat may not be particularly associated with an actuation.

In other embodiments, the file for an electronic record may or may notbe a flat file, and event entries associated with actuations (actuationevent entries) may be somehow identified and differentiated from otherevent entries that are not associated with an actuation. For example, afile for an electronic record may include a particular data structure orformat that segregates or separates in some manner event entriesassociated with successive actuations from those event entries that arenot particularly associated with actuations (and/or may be common tomultiple actuations or a group of actuations). In yet other embodiments,as discussed below, marking information may be initially collected andlogged in a first file for an electronic record in a first format (e.g.,a flat file including a succession of time-stamped event entries as “rawdata” for the marking operation) that may be stored and/or transmittedfor any of a variety of purposes, and then reformatted and/orreorganized in some manner in one or more subsequent files (e.g., a filehaving a particular data structure that segregates/separatesactuation-related information from other information in differentfields/elements of a data structure) for archiving and/or transmissionto one or more other devices/processors.

Once a file for an electronic record is opened in block 606, in block608 the processor can begin collecting and logging various markinginformation, i.e., logging in the electronic record (and/or transmittingvia the communication interface) actuation event entries and/or otherevent entries. In one exemplary implementation, the processor may beprogrammed so as to poll one or more input devices and/or othercomponents of the marking device to receive information, either once ormultiple times/periodically following the job initiation signal, and logresponses to these polls (“polling events”) as event entries withassociated time stamps. Examples of entries corresponding to pollingevents that may be logged into the file for the electronic record(and/or transmitted) include, but are not limited to, one or more “powerstatus event entries” including power information associated with thepower source 114, one or more “ticket information event entries”including ticket information (e.g., as received from the user interfaceor the communication interface, retrieved from local memory, etc.), oneor more “service-related information event entries” including theservice-related information (e.g., as received from the user interfaceor the communication interface, retrieved from local memory, etc.), andone or more “communication interface event entries” including statusinformation regarding operation of the communication interface (e.g.,network communication available/unavailable).

Additionally or alternatively, the processor may be programmed so as torespond to one or more signals designated as “interrupt events” from oneor more components of the marking device. Such interrupt events causelogging of information in the electronic record (and/or transmission ofinformation) upon/following the processor detecting the correspondingsignal(s). For example, the “job initiation signal” itself mayconstitute an interrupt event, in response to which the processor 118not only opens a file for the electronic record but, once the file isopened, the processor may request timing information from the timingsystem 128 and log into the electronic record a “start job event entry”including a job initiation time stamp associated with receipt of the jobinitiation signal.

In a similar manner, following commencement of a marking operation, thelocate technician may utilize the user interface 126 (e.g., press abutton, operate a joy-stick, or touch a touch screen display portion ofa graphical user interface) to pause, restart, and/or indicatecompletion of the marking operation, and these actions may constituteinterrupt events. For example, as indicated in block 610 of FIG. 9, a“pause signal” may be provided by the user interface to the processor,in response to which the processor may request timing information fromthe timing system and log a “pause job event entry” including a pausejob time stamp associated with the at least one pause signal. When thetechnician is ready to continue, as shown in block 612 of FIG. 9 thetechnician may indicate this via the user interface and a “restart jobevent entry” similarly may be logged. When the marking operation isdeemed by the technician to be completed, as noted in block 614 of FIG.9 the technician may utilize the user interface so as to provide a “stopsignal” to the processor, in response to which the processor may requesttiming information from the timing system and log a “stop job evententry” including a stop job time stamp associate with the stop signal.

While various events are noted above as examples of “polling events” asopposed to “interrupt events,” it should be appreciated that theinvention is not limited in these respects, and that the marking dataalgorithm 134 executed by the processor 118 may be configured in any ofa variety manners to designate various functions performed by and/orinformation provided by various components of the marking device aspolling events or interrupt events. For example, the power source 114may be configured to provide a “low battery signal” to the processor,which when present is treated by the processor as an interrupt eventthat may be logged by the processor and/or that may cause the processorto take some particular action (e.g., provide an audible/visible alert;disable logging of further data, etc.). In one aspect, absent the “lowbattery signal,” the processor may request status information from thepower source once or occasionally as a polling event. Similarly, thecommunication interface 124 may be configured to provide a “no networkconnection available signal” to the processor, which when present istreated by the processor as an interrupt event (that is logged and/orcauses the processor to take some action), and when not present, theprocessor may poll the communication interface to request statusinformation as a polling event.

Another example of an interrupt event is given by the actuation signal121 provided by the actuation system 120 upon actuation of the actuator142 (i.e., a signal change-of-state indicating a transition from anon-actuated state to an actuated state), in response to which theprocessor logs one or more actuation event entries in the electronicrecord. More specifically, in one implementation, the receipt of anon-actuated to actuated transition state of the actuation signal 121 bythe processor may cause an initial actuation event entry to be logged asa “start actuation event entry” having an associated time stamp (i.e., astart time for the corresponding actuation) and also cause the processorto subsequently poll one or more input devices for information duringthe corresponding actuation and until release of the actuator (i.e.,subsequent change of state of the actuation signal 121). In this manner,an actuation data set for a given actuation may include multipleactuation event entries.

For example, during actuation of the actuator, the processor may pollthe location tracking system 130 so as to receive geographicinformation, and in turn log one or more “geo-location data evententries” in the actuation data set for the corresponding actuation. Asdiscussed above in connection with FIGS. 2 and 3, in one exemplaryimplementation the location tracking system is configured to providegeographic information at an information update rate of approximately 5Hz, and the processor may log respective updates of geographicinformation provided by the location tracking system at this update rateduring an actuation as multiple geo-location data event entries of theactuation data set. It should be appreciated, however, that methods andapparatus according to various embodiments of the present invention arenot limited in this respect, and that other geographic informationupdate rates may be employed in various implementations (e.g., updaterates of up to approximately 100 Hz), based in part on the particularlocation tracking system employed. Furthermore, it should be appreciatedthat in some implementations the geographic information provided by thelocation tracking system 130 may include one or more longitudecoordinates, latitude coordinates, and a corresponding geo-location datatime stamp at which a given set of longitude/latitude coordinates areobtained by the location tracking system; accordingly, a givengeo-location data event entry in an actuation data set may include alongitude coordinate, a latitude coordinate, and the correspondinggeo-location data time stamp.

Similarly, in some implementations, pursuant to an interrupt provided bythe actuation signal 121, the processor may subsequently poll one ormore of the timing system 128 and the marking material detectionmechanism 132 so as to receive timing information and/or markingmaterial information during a corresponding actuation, and in turn logone or more of a “timing event entry,” and a “marking material detectionevent entry” as part of the actuation data set. Any of a variety ofmarking material information as discussed above may be collected andlogged during actuation in response to processor polling of the markingmaterial detection mechanism (e.g., causing an RFID tag reader to readvarious information from an RFID tag affixed to the marking dispenser).

Additionally, in some implementations, pursuant to an interrupt providedby the actuation signal 121, the processor may subsequently poll one ormore of the user interface 126, the communication interface 124, and thelocal memory 122 to retrieve ticket information and/or service-relatedinformation for logging into an actuation data set. As discussed above,in some implementations the receipt/retrieval of ticket informationand/or service-related information may be treated as a polling event notnecessarily associated with actuations, and this information need not beincluded in one or more actuation data sets. However, in otherimplementations it may be desirable to include at least some aspect ofticket information and/or service related information in each actuationdata set, notwithstanding the possible redundancy of data content inrespective actuation data sets (e.g., see Table 2, discussed furtherbelow in connection with FIG. 10).

Another example of an interrupt event is given by a change-of-state ofthe actuation signal 121 indicating a transition from the actuated stateto the non-actuated state, i.e., release of the actuator 142. Inresponse to this event, the processor may request information from thetiming system 128 and log an “end actuation event entry” including anend time stamp.

Yet another type of interrupt event causing the processor to log one ormore event entries may be provided by the marking material detectionmechanism 132 in the form of a signal that indicates whether or not amarking dispenser is contained in or appropriately coupled to themarking device. To this end, as discussed above in connection with FIGS.2 and 3, the marking material detection mechanism may include a toggleswitch that provides a two-state signal to the processor (e.g.,dispenser in/dispenser out) as an interrupt. Upon receiving an interruptindicating a transition from “dispenser out” to “dispenser in,” theprocessor may collect and log this event as a “dispenser in event entry”with a corresponding time stamp, and then request other marking materialinformation relating to the marking material in the dispenser from themarking material detection mechanism. In view of the foregoing, itshould be appreciated that in some embodiments, marking materialinformation may not necessarily be collected during one or moreactuations of the marking device, but alternatively may be collectedonly upon a “dispenser in” event being detected. Upon detection of aninterrupt event indicating a transition from “dispenser in” to“dispenser out,” the processor similarly may collect and log this eventas a “dispenser out event entry.”

In yet another embodiment, the processor 118, executing marking dataalgorithm 134, may be configured to repeatedly/regularly poll allavailable input devices and other components of the marking device(e.g., in a predetermined order, in response to receipt of the jobinitiation signal) and generate an essentially continuous stream of datapackets including marking information received pursuant to these pollingevents. In one aspect of this embodiment, each data packet of markinginformation may include a header, one or more flag fields, and one ormore information payload fields. For example, in one implementation, theheader for each packet may include one or more of a job ID (e.g., ticketidentifier), technician ID, device ID (e.g., serial number), packet typeID, and/or a time stamp corresponding to logging ofinformation/generation of the packet. Each packet also may include oneor more payload fields for carrying information provided by the polleddevice(s) or components, and one or more flag fields that are set (orreset) upon occurrence of one or more predetermined interrupt events(e.g., pull/depress actuator, release actuator, marking dispenser in,marking dispenser out, low power, communication link fail, etc.). Inthis manner, a continuous stream of data may be provided as an output bythe processor, in which certain interrupt events, such as an actuationand/or release of the actuator, “tag” certain data packets via aninterrupt flag. In yet other aspects of this embodiment, all datapackets thusly generated may be stored in the file opened for theelectronic record and/or transmitted from the marking device inessentially real time; alternatively, only certain data packets with oneor more predetermined flags set may be stored and/or transmitted.

Table 1 below illustrates an example of a portion of the contents of arelatively simple flat file for an electronic record that may begenerated by the process 600 of FIG. 9:

TABLE 1 MARKER TIME LAT LONG EVENT COLOR 1:23:00.00 PM −80.3851 25.5604Spraying ORANGE 1:23:00.20 PM −80.3851 25.5604 Spraying ORANGE1:23:00.40 PM −80.3851 25.5604 Spraying ORANGE 1:23:00.60 PM −80.385125.5604 Spraying ORANGE 1:23.00.80 PM −80.3851 25.5604 Spraying ORANGE1:23:01.00 PM −80.3851 25.5604 Spraying ORANGE 1:23:01.20 PM −80.385125.5604 Spraying ORANGE 1:23:01.40 PM −80.3851 25.56039 Spraying ORANGE1:23:01.60 PM −80.3851 25.56039 Spraying ORANGE 1:23:01.80 PM −80.385125.5604 Spraying ORANGE 1:23:02.00 PM −80.3851 25.5604 Spraying ORANGEThe portion of the file shown in Table 1 corresponds to multipleactuation event entries (one entry per line) collected and logged duringan actuation of the marking device. Each entry has a time stamp (e.g.,entries are logged at a rate of approximately five events per second)and further includes multiple fields having respective values (e.g., ascomma separated values) for latitude and longitude coordinates receivedfrom the location tracking device, an event indicator indicating thatthe device is “Spraying” (the actuator is actuated), and a color of themarking material being dispensed.

As noted above, it should be appreciated that the portion of the fileshown in Table 1 is provided primarily for purposes of illustration, andthat the format and/or content for respective event entries and the fileitself for an electronic record generated by and/or based on theinformation collection process discussed above in connection with FIG. 9may have any of a variety of different formats and/or content.

To this point, Tables 2 through 5 below provide examples of variousevents for which event entries may be logged in a file for an electronicrecord and/or transmitted by the marking device, exemplary formats forthese event entries, and exemplary file formats for files havingmultiple such entries, according to another embodiment of the presentinvention.

Job Started/Paused/Restarted/Completed Events:

This event entry format provides information about when a markingoperation (“job”) was started and completed in addition to capturingdetails about if and when the job was paused and restarted.

TABLE 2 Format INFO+JOBS: (DATE) (TIME) (WAND_ID) (JOB_ID) (STATE)<CR><LF> Examples INFO+JOBS: DATE(2009-04-15) TIME(12:03:44) WAND(2334)JOB(4000) (STARTED) <CR> <LF> INFO+JOBS: DATE(2009-04-15) TIME(12:11:44)WAND(2334) JOB(4000) (PAUSED) <CR> <LF> INFO+JOBS: DATE(2009-04-15)TIME(12:51:44) WAND(2334) JOB(4000) (RESTARTED) <CR> <LF> INFO+JOBS:DATE(2009-04-15) TIME(13:09:44) WAND(2334) JOB(4000) (END) <CR> <LF>

Actuation State Change Events:

For purposes of this event format, the actuator is deemed to have threepossible states, i.e., PRESSED, HELD and RELEASED. Marking informationfrom one or more input devices/other components of the marking device isrecorded with these events to provide information about the job inprogress.

TABLE 3 Format INFO+ WPTR: (DATE) (TIME) (GPS data) (PAINT info)(TRIGGER SWITCH STATE) <CR><L

Examples INFO+WPTR: DATE(2009-04-15) TIME(12:04:44) GPS($GPGGA, 120443,4807.038, N, 01131.000, E, 1, 08, 0.9, 545.4, M, 46.9, M,, *47) CLR(RED)SWCH(PRESSED)<CR><LF> INFO+WPTR: DATE(2009-04-15) TIME(12:04:45)GPS($GPGGA, 120445, 4807.038, N, 01131.000, E, 1, 08, 0.9, 545.4, M,46.9, M,, *47) CLR(RED) SWCH(HELD)<CR><LF> INFO+WPTR: DATE(2009-04-15)TIME(12:04:46) GPS($GPGGA, 120446, 4807.038, N, 01131.000, E, 1, 08,0.9, 545.4, M, 46.9, M,, *47) CLR(RED) SWCH(RELEASED)<CR><LF>

indicates data missing or illegible when filed

Marking Device Status Events:

The status event collects various marking information and/or informationon operating characteristics of the device on a periodic basis while ajob is in progress (e.g., pursuant to processor polls).

TABLE 4 Format INFO+STAT: (DATE) (TIME) (GPS data) (PAINT status)(MEMORY used in %) (BATT

 level) <CR><LF> Examples INFO+STAT: DATE(2009-04-15) TIME(12:04:00)GPS($GPGGA, 120400, 4807.038, N, 01131.000, E, 1, 08, 0.9, 545.4, M,46.9, M,, *47) CLR(RED) MEM(65) BAT(3)<CR><LF>

indicates data missing or illegible when filed

Error Events:

Should any input device or other component of the marking deviceencounter a significant error condition, this may be logged as an event.In some cases, the user/technician also may be notified of the errorthrough the user interface 126 (visible alert on display, audiblealarm/alert, etc.). Similar event formats may be adopted for warningalerts/events and informational alerts/events.

TABLE 5 Format INFO+ERR: (DATE) (TIME) (GPS data) (PAINT status) (MEMORYused in %) (BATTERY level) <CR><LF> Examples INFO+ERR: DATE(2009-04-15)TIME(12:04:00) GPS($GPGGA, 120400, 4807.038, N, 01131.000, E, 1, 08,0.9, 545.4, M, 46.9, M,, *47) CLR(RED) MEM(65) BAT(3)<CR><LF>

With respect to file formats for electronic records including the evententries outlined above in Tables 2 through 5, two exemplary fileformats, namely ASCII and XML, are provided below for purposes ofillustration. In various implementations, a given marking device may beparticularly configured to store and/or transmit electronic records andrespective entries therein in either format (or other formats). Withrespect to identification of files/electronic records, a standard namingscheme/format may be adopted, for example, including an identifier forthe remote computer with which the marking device may be communicating(“ServerID”), an identifier for the marking device itself (“WandID”),and an identifier for the marking operation/job (“JobID”), and havingthe format “ServerID_WandID_Job ID.”

ASCII Data Format: This format allows low-level remote processingengines to quickly and easily receive, parse, and react to markinginformation logged and/or transmitted by the marking device. An exampleof an electronic record formatted in ASCII based on the event entriesoutlined in Tables 2 through 5 is as follows:

INFO+JOBS: DATE(2009-04-15) TIME(12:03:44) WAND(2334) JOB(4000)(STARTED) <CR> <LF> INFO+STAT: DATE(2009-04-15) TIME(12:04:00)GPS($GPGGA,120400,4807.038,N,01131.000,E,1,08,0.9,545.4,M,46.9,M,,*47 )CLR(RED) MEM(65) BAT(3)<CR><LF> INFO+WPTR: DATE(2009-04-15)TIME(12:04:44)GPS($GPGGA,120443,4807.038,N,01131.000,E,1,08,0.9,545.4,M,46.9,M,,*47 )CLR(RED) SWCH(PRESSED)<CR><LF> INFO+WPTR: DATE(2009-04-15)TIME(12:04:45)GPS($GPGGA,120445,4807.038,N,01131.000,E,1,08,0.9,545.4,M,46.9,M,,*47 )CLR(RED) SWCH(HELD)<CR><LF> INFO+WPTR: DATE(2009-04-15) TIME(12:04:46)GPS($GPGGA,120446,4807.038,N,01131.000,E,1,08,0.9,545.4,M,46.9,M,,*47 )CLR(RED) SWCH(RELEASED)<CR><LF> INFO+STAT: DATE(2009-04-15)TIME(12:05:00)GPS($GPGGA,120500,4807.038,N,01131.000,E,1,08,0.9,545.4,M,46.9,M,,*47 )CLR(RED) BAT(3)<CR><LF> INFO+JOBS: DATE(2009-04-15) TIME(12:10:03)WAND(2334) JOB(4000) (PAUSED)<CR> <LF> INFO+JOBS: DATE(2009-04-15)TIME(13:01:43) WAND(2334) JOB(4000) (RESTARTED)<CR> <LF> INFO+WPTR:DATE(2009-04-15) TIME(13:01:50)GPS($GPGGA,130150,4807.038,N,01131.000,E,1,08,0.9,545.4,M,46.9,M,,*47 )CLR(RED) SWCH(PRESSED)<CR><LF> INFO+WPTR: DATE(2009-04-15)TIME(13:01:51)GPS($GPGGA,130151,4807.038,N,01131.000,E,1,08,0.9,545.4,M,46.9,M,,*47 )CLR(RED) SWCH(RELEASED)<CR><LF> INFO+JOBS: DATE(2009-04-15)TIME(13:20:30) WAND(2334) JOB(4000) (END)<CR> <LF>

XML Data Format:

This format allows transmission of self-describing data elements fromthe marking device, in some instances reducing processing errors andreducing the risks and effort involved in upgrades and data changes. Anexample of an electronic record formatted in XML based on the evententries outlined in Tables 2 through 5 is as follows:

<WAND ID=2334> <JOB ID=4000> <ACTIVITY>  <DATE>2009-04-15</DATE> <TIME>12:03:44</TIME>  <STATUS>Started</STATUS>  </ACTIVITY> <ACTIVITY> <DATE>2009-04-15</DATE> <TIME>12:04:00</TIME> <GPS>($GPGGA,120400,4807.038,N,01131.000,E,1,08,0.9,545.4,M,46.9,M,,*47</GPS> <PAINT><COLOR>Red</COLOR> <VALID>True</VALID> <SN>2342343243355</SN> </PAINT> <SWITCH>Pressed</SWITCH> </ACTIVITY> </JOB> </WAND>

Yet another alternative format for storing and organizing markinginformation in an electronic record of a marking operation, according toone embodiment of the invention, is shown in Table 6 below. By way ofexample, Table 6 shows the format and content of three actuation datasets of an electronic record of a marking operation for a givenfacility, in which each actuation data set includes informationassociated with multiple actuation event entries logged during acorresponding actuation and resulting locate mark (e.g., act-1, act-2,and act-3), as shown for example in FIG. 8. As discussed above, itshould be appreciated that the format and content shown below in Table 6may constitute an “original” electronic record generated by theprocessor pursuant to the process 600 shown in FIG. 9, or may be derivedfrom raw data collected and logged pursuant to the process 600 (e.g., asa flat file, an ASCII formatted file, or an XML formatted file) andsubsequently reorganized and particularly formatted.

TABLE 6 Example actuation data set for act-1 act-1 Service provider ID0482 User ID 4815 Device ID 7362 T1 timestamp data 12-Jul-2008;09:35:15.2 T2 timestamp data 12-Jul-2008; 09:35:16.1 Duration (Δt)00:00:00.9 T1 geo-location data 2650.9348, N, 08003.5057, W 1^(st)interval location data 2650.9353, N, 08003.5055, W 2^(nd) intervallocation data 2650.9356, N, 08003.5055, W . . . . . . Nth intervallocation data 2650.9246, N, 08003.5240, W T2 geo-location data2650.9255, N, 08003.5236, W Product data Color = Red, Brand = ABC,Type/Batch = 224B-1 Locate request data Requestor: XYZ ConstructionCompany, Requested service address: 222 Main St, Orlando, FL Exampleactuation data set for act-2 act-2 Service provider ID 0482 User ID 4815Device ID 7362 T1 timestamp data 12-Jul-2008; 09:35:17.5 T2 timestampdata 12-Jul-2008; 09:35:18.7 Duration (Δt) 00:00:01.2 T1 geo-locationdata 2650.9256, N, 08003.5234, W 1st interval location data 2650.9256,N, 08003.5226, W 2^(nd) interval location data 2650.9256, N, 08003.5217,W . . . . . . Nth interval location data 2650.9260, N, 08003.5199, W T2geo-location data 2650.9266, N, 08003.5196, W Product data Color = Red,Brand = ABC, Type/Batch = 224B-1 Locate request data Requestor: XYZConstruction Company, Requested service address: 222 Main St, Orlando,FL Example actuation data set for act-3 act-3 Service provider ID 0482User ID 4815 Device ID 7362 T1 timestamp data 12-Jul-2008; 09:35:18.7 T2timestamp data 12-Jul-2008; 09:35:19.8 duration (Δt) 00:00:01.1 T1geo-location data 2650.9273, N, 08003.5193, W 1st interval location data2650.9281, N, 08003.5190, W 2^(nd) interval location data 2650.9288, N,08003.5188, W . . . . . . Nth interval location data 2650.9321, N,08003.5177, W T2 geo-location data 2650.9325, N, 08003.5176, W Productdata Color = Red, Brand = ABC, Type/Batch = 224B-1 Locate request dataRequestor: XYZ Construction Company, Requested service address: 222 MainSt, Orlando, FL

In addition to the information shown in Table 6, a job ID or some otheridentifier for the electronic record as a whole (e.g., a ticket number),as well as a total number of actuations for a given marking operation(e.g., the total number of actuation data sets in a given electronicrecord in this embodiment), may be included in the electronic record.

With regard to color information that may be included in any of theevent entries and electronic records discussed herein, Table 7 belowshows an example of the correlation of marking material color to thetype of facility to be marked.

TABLE 7 Correlation of color to facility type Marking material colorFacility Type Red Electric power lines, cables or conduits, and lightingcables Yellow Gas, oil, steam, petroleum, or other hazardous liquid orgaseous materials Orange Communications, cable television, alarm orsignal lines, cables, or conduits Blue Water, irrigation, and slurrylines Green Sewers, storm sewer facilities, or other drain lines WhiteProposed excavation Pink Temporary survey markings Purple Reclaimedwater, irrigation, and slurry lines Black Mark-out for errant lines

FIG. 10 illustrates an exemplary data structure for an electronic record135, according to another embodiment of the present invention, that maybe generated by and/or based on information collected during the process600 discussed above in connection with FIG. 9 and based on theorganization of information shown in Table 6 above. As shown in FIG. 10,the record 135 includes a file identifier 701 (e.g., one or more of JobID, WandID, ServerID, etc.) and a plurality of actuation data sets 1through N (with reference numbers 702A, 702B, 702C . . . 702N), whereineach actuation data set is associated with a corresponding actuation ofa marking device. For purposes of the following discussion, FIG. 10shows additional details of the data structure for actuation data set 3702C, showing several fields in which data (e.g., actuation evententries) may be entered to constitute the actuation data set. While onlythe exemplary details of the data structure of actuation data set 3 areshown in the electronic record 135 of FIG. 10, it should be appreciatedthat multiple actuation data sets of the electronic record 135 may havethe same data structure as that shown for actuation data set 3 in FIG.10.

The data structure of the actuation data set 3 702C of the electronicrecord 135 shown in FIG. 10 includes a start location field 704(corresponding to T1 geo-location data shown in Table 2), an endlocation field 713 (corresponding to T2 geo-location data shown in Table2), a start time field 706 (corresponding to T1 timestamp data shown inTable 2), an end time field 708 (corresponding to T2 timestamp datashown in Table 2) and a duration field 709 (corresponding to theduration At shown in Table 2). Additionally, the data structure forentry 3 702C includes one or more fields 712A, 712B, . . . 712N forintermediate location data (corresponding to 1^(st) interval locationdata, 2^(nd) interval location data . . . Nth interval location datashown in Table 2). Finally, the data structure for the entry 3 702C mayinclude one or more ticket information fields 714 (e.g., correspondingto Locate request data in Table 2) and one or more service-relatedinformation fields 716 (e.g., corresponding to Service provider ID, UserID, and Device ID in Table 2).

In addition to one or more actuation data sets corresponding toactuations of a marking device, the electronic record 135 shown in FIG.10 may include one or more additional elements. For example, FIG. 10shows an additional element 718 of the electronic record to store thetotal number of entries in the record. Furthermore, according to anotherembodiment, various other information that may be common to multiple (orall) actuation data sets of a given electronic record may be stored inone or more additional elements of the electronic record that are notcontained within one or more of the actuation data sets themselves. Forexample, in one alternative implementation, one or more of the ticketinformation field 714, the service-related information field 716, andthe marking material properties field 710, which are shown as part ofthe data structure for a given actuation data set of the electronicrecord, may instead be elements of the electronic record that are notincluded within any one actuation data set (e.g., the informationcontained in one or more of the ticket information field and theservice-related information field may be common to all actuation datasets of a given electronic record).

V. Computer-Generated Visual Representation of a Marking Operation

With reference again to FIGS. 2 and 3, in yet another embodiment theprocessor 118, executing marking data algorithm 134, and/or one or moreremote computers 150 executing marking data algorithm 134, mayadditionally process various marking information provided in real timefrom a marking device and/or stored in an electronic record of a markingoperation and control a display device (e.g., display 146 of markingdevice 110 or some other display device) to render a computer-generatedvisual representation of a marking operation. Such a visualrepresentation of the marking operation may be used, for example, toprovide immediate feedback to the locate technician, provide essentiallyreal-time feedback to a supervisor monitoring the marking operation froma remote location, provide a visual record of the marking operation(e.g., for archiving purposes, once the marking operation is completedand one or more electronic records are generated), and/or to verify thequality (e.g., accuracy and completeness) of work performed during themarking operation.

In various aspects of this embodiment, a visual representation may bestatic in that all available information is presented in a display fieldat one time after completion of the marking operation and generation ofan electronic record; alternatively, the visual representation may bedynamic in that information representing successive actuations of themarking device is displayed in essentially real-time, or may bedisplayed after completion of the marking operation and generation ofthe electronic record in a time-sequenced animation that “recreates” themarking operation on the time scale in which it was performedoriginally.

In other aspects, the relative positions of all locate marks representedby actuation event entries logged and/or transmitted by the markingdevice may be displayed (e.g., based on geo-location data and someappropriate scale of an available display field of display 146) toprovide a visual representation of the marking operation. A visualrepresentation of a marking operation may also be rendered in one ormore particular colors corresponding to one or more particularunderground facilities marked during the marking operation (e.g., seeTable 7).

In one exemplary implementation, such a visual representation mayinclude one “electronic locate mark” displayed in a display field foreach actuation/dispensing action of a marking device, such that there isessentially a one-to-one correspondence between electronic locate marksand physical locate marks for a given underground facility marked duringa marking operation. Alternatively, in another exemplary implementationof such a visual representation, an essentially continuous solid line(or other line type) may be displayed in a display field to represent agiven underground facility marked during a marking operation. In anotheraspect, the processor may process the geo-location data in respectiveactuation data sets of an electronic record so as to filter, average,interpolate and/or otherwise “smooth” data (e.g., so as to provide“cleaner” visual renderings and/or connect successive locate marksrepresented by the respective actuation data sets of the electronicrecord); alternatively, “raw data” provided by the marking device may beutilized for the visual representation. In yet another aspect of thisembodiment, visual representations of multiple marking operations fordifferent underground facilities within the same work site/dig area maybe generated in the same display field of a display device so as toprovide a composite visual representation, in which differentunderground facilities may be uniquely identified in some manner (e.g.,by different line types and/or different colors).

FIG. 11 illustrates a flow chart for a process 800 according to oneembodiment of the present invention for generating a visualrepresentation of a marking operation based on an electronic recordand/or essentially real-time information transmission from the markingdevice 110. As noted above, the process 800 may result from theexecution of one embodiment of the marking data algorithm 134 on theprocessor 118 of the marking device 110 (to render the visualrepresentation on the display 146 of the marking device), or by one ormore other remote computers (to render the visual representation on oneor more other display devices).

In block 802 of the process 800, if an electronic record has alreadybeen generated for the marking operation in which one or moreunderground facilities are marked, the record is examined to determinethe geographic extents of the locate marks to be visually rendered on adisplay device. In particular, the processor 118 may review thegeo-location data of all actuation data sets of the electronic record todetermine (e.g., based on the respective latitude and longitudecoordinates of the available geo-location data) the maximum extents ofthe marking operation to be visually rendered.

The maximum extents of the marking operation may be determined in any ofa variety of manners according to different exemplary implementations.For example, in one exemplary implementation, in block 802 the processor118 may determine the centroid of all electronic locate marksrepresented by respective actuation data sets of the electronic recordto be displayed. The processor then determines the geographic extent ofthe collection of electronic locate marks by determining one or morelatitude/longitude coordinate pairs from the available data having agreatest distance from the centroid. In one example, the processor maydetermine a single farthest point from the centroid, and a distancebetween this farthest point and the centroid serves as a radius of acircle that provides an “extents area circle.” In another example, the“farthest opposing corners” of a rectangle around the centroid may bedetermined by assigning the centroid as the origin of a referencecoordinate system, and finding the coordinate pairs in opposingquadrants of the coordinate system having a greatest distance from thecentroid (e.g., the +LAT/+LONG and −LAT/−LONG coordinate pairs at agreatest distance from the origin) to provide an “extents arearectangle.” Other types of polygons and closed shapes (ovals) may beemployed to provide an extents area for the marking operation to bedisplayed.

Alternatively, if an electronic record has not been previously generatedand information received in essentially real-time from the markingdevice is to be displayed in a display field, a default extents area maybe selected in advance based on any of a variety of criteria. Forexample, address and/or site description information provided in aticket pursuant to which the marking operation is performed may providea basis on which an extents area for the marking operation may beestimated a priori. Similarly, as discussed further below in connectionwith FIG. 14, an available digital image of the work site/dig area maybe employed to determine or estimate an initial extents area for themarking operation.

In block 804, the extents area of the marking operation to be visuallyrendered is then mapped to an available display field of a displaydevice, using any appropriate scaling factor as necessary, to ensurethat all of the geo-location data in the electronic record fits withinthe display field. For example, in one exemplary implementation, atransformation may be derived using information relating to theavailable display field (e.g., a reference coordinate system using anappropriate scale for a given display field of a display device) to mapdata points within the extents area to the available display field. Inanother aspect of this example, a buffer area around the extents areamay be added to provide one or more suitable margins for the displayedvisual representation, and/or to accommodate different shapes of extentsareas to the available display field of the display device, and anappropriate transformation may be derived based on this optionaladditional buffer area.

Once a transformation is derived to map the marking operation extentsarea to the available display field of a display device, in block 806one or more electronic locate marks is/are rendered in the display fieldbased on applying the transformation to the geo-location data present inthe data set of one or more corresponding actuation data sets of theelectronic record. In one exemplary implementation, one electroniclocate mark is rendered in the display field for each actuation data setof an electronic record. With reference again to Table 6 and FIG. 10, inone embodiment each actuation data set includes at least T1 geo-locationdata for a start of an actuation of a marking device and one or moreother pieces of geo-location data during actuation. Using multiplepieces of geo-location data per actuation data set, an electronic locatemark may be rendered as a line in the display field (e.g., so as tovisually represent one of the physical locate marks 414-1, 414-2 or414-3 shown in FIG. 8). In another exemplary implementation, anelectronic locate mark may be rendered for each geo-location data in agiven entry, such that multiple electronic locate marks correspond toone actuation (e.g., a series of dots electronically rendered tographically represent a line-type physical locate mark). In one aspect,as discussed above, a given electronic locate mark may be rendered in aparticular color and/or line type to represent a type of undergroundfacility represented by the mark (e.g., as indicated by marking materialinformation included in the electronic record).

FIG. 12 illustrates a plan view of an exemplary composite visualrepresentation 900 that “electronically recreates” a marking operationfor various underground facilities present in a dig area, based forexample on the process 800 discussed above. In particular, FIG. 12illustrates a number of electronic locate marks corresponding toactuations of a marking device whose relative positions in the displayfield are derived from actuation data sets of the electronic record, asdiscussed above. In the example of FIG. 12, act-1 through act-7 form alines pattern 910 representing a first marked underground facility,act-8 through act-14 form a lines pattern 912 representing a secondmarked underground facility, act-15 through act-24 form a lines pattern914 representing a third marked underground facility, and act-25 throughact-35 form a lines pattern 916 representing a fourth marked undergroundfacility.

As noted above, while in one embodiment there may be a one-to-onecorrespondence between electronic locate marks rendered in a single orcomposite visual representation and physical locate marks placed in adig area during a marking operation, or there may be multiple electroniclocate marks for a corresponding physical locate mark, in yet otherembodiments a single or composite visual representation may provide avariety of other indicators/digital representations of markedunderground facilities in a computer-generated visual rendering. Forexample, FIG. 13 illustrates another example of a composite visualrepresentation 1000 based on the same electronic record used to generatethe composite visual representation 900 of FIG. 12, in which continuouslines are used to indicate the respective marking operations. To thisend, in one exemplary implementation, an additional step may be includedin the process 800 shown in FIG. 11, in which the processor may processthe geo-location data in an electronic record by filtering, averaging,interpolating and/or otherwise “smoothing” the data so as to connectsuccessive discrete locate marks represented by the respective actuationdata sets of the electronic record and thereby provide a substantiallysmooth continuous line for display.

In the example of FIG. 13, as also noted above, different undergroundfacility types may be indicated in different color lines, and thedifferent colors/facility types may be derived from the electronicrecord (e.g., based on the correlations provided in Table 7).Furthermore, in other aspects, text indicators may be included in thevisual representation, and/or other types of coding may be used(different line styles such as patterns, width, bold, etc.; a successionof symbols or other graphic icons, etc.) to indicate different facilitytypes, and/or some other aspect of a given facility (e.g., the materialused for a particular pipe, conduit, cable, sheathing; the diameter of aparticular pipe, conduit, cable; offsets to one or more environmentallandmarks, etc.). By way of example, FIG. 13 indicates that the fourunderground facilities in the composite visual representation correspondto a power line 1010 (which may be rendered in the color red), a firstsewer line 1012 (which may be rendered in the color green), a secondsewer line 1014 (which also may be rendered in the color green), and atelecommunications line 1016 (which may be rendered in the colororange). While not shown explicitly in FIG. 13, an exemplary compositevisual representation may include additional textual, numeric and/orgraphic elements to provide other information available in theelectronic record for the marking operations (e.g., timestampinformation, ID information, coordinates for location information,offset indications, etc.).

In some marking operations, a technician may use the marking device notonly to mark an underground facility's placement/path relative to theground, pavement or other surface, but also to “annotate” the markingoperation in some fashion. For example, in some instances a technicianactually “writes” with the marking device (e.g., by actuating themarking device to dispense paint) to provide text annotations, offsetindications, arrows, other symbols, and the like on the ground, pavementor other surface. Accordingly, the electronic record for a markingoperation may include one or more actuation data sets corresponding toactuations in which the technician was “writing” to annotate the markingoperation in some fashion rather than marking the path of an undergroundfacilities. In some cases, providing such technician annotations on avisual representation of a marking operation may be desirable; however,in other instances such annotations may provide erratic markings on avisual representation, in which case additional processing ofgeo-location data or other information in the electronic record (e.g.,filtering, averaging, interpolating and/or otherwise “smoothing” thedata) may be employed.

In yet another embodiment, a single or composite visual representationof a marking operation may rendered on a display device together with adigital image representative of at least a portion of a dig area at awork site, such that one or more electronic locate marks appear inappropriate relative positions overlaid on the displayed digital image.FIG. 14 illustrates yet another example of a composite visualrepresentation 1100, albeit based on an electronic record different thanthat used to generate the visual representations of FIGS. 9 and 10, inwhich continuous lines are used to indicate the respective differentunderground facilities marked, and these lines are overlaid on a digitalimage of a dig area. It should be appreciated that although continuouslines representing underground facilities are depicted on a digitalimage in FIG. 14, in other embodiments discrete electronic locate markscorresponding to successive actuations of a marking device (or multiplediscrete electronic locate marks per actuation) may be overlaid on adigital image of the dig area.

In the embodiment of FIG. 14, a number of different image sources andimage types may be employed to provide the digital image on which avisual representation of a marking operation may be overlaid. Forpurposes of the present disclosure, such a digital image (also referredto herein as an “input image”) may be any image represented by sourcedata that is electronically processed (e.g., the source data is in acomputer-readable format) to display the image on a display device. Aninput image may include any of a variety of paper/tangible image sourcesthat are scanned (e.g., via an electronic scanner) or otherwiseconverted so as to create source data (e.g., in various formats such asXML, PDF, JPG, BMP, etc.) that can be processed to display the inputimage. An input image also may include an image that originates assource data or an electronic file without necessarily having acorresponding paper/tangible copy of the image (e.g., an image of a“real-world” scene acquired by a digital still frame or video camera orother image acquisition device, in which the source data, at least inpart, represents pixel information from the image acquisition device).

In some exemplary implementations, input images according to the presentdisclosure may be created, provided, and/or processed by a geographicinformation system (GIS) that captures, stores, analyzes, manages andpresents data referring to (or linked to) location, such that the sourcedata representing the input image includes pixel information from animage acquisition device (corresponding to an acquired “real world”scene or representation thereof), and/or spatial/geographic information(“geo-encoded information”).

In view of the foregoing, various examples of input images and sourcedata representing input images according to the present disclosure, towhich the inventive concepts disclosed herein may be applied, includebut are not limited to:

-   -   Manual “free-hand” paper sketches of the geographic area (which        may include one or more buildings, natural or man-made        landmarks, property boundaries, streets/intersections, public        works or facilities such as street lighting, signage, fire        hydrants, mail boxes, parking meters, etc.);    -   Various maps indicating surface features and/or extents of        geographical areas, such as street/road maps, topographical        maps, military maps, parcel maps, tax maps, town and county        planning maps, call-center and/or facility polygon maps, virtual        maps, etc. (such maps may or may not include geo-encoded        information);    -   Facility maps illustrating installed underground facilities,        such as gas, power, telephone, cable, fiber optics, water,        sewer, drainage, etc. Facility maps may also indicate        street-level features (streets, buildings, public facilities,        etc.) in relation to the depicted underground facilities.        Examples of facility maps include CAD drawings that may be        created and viewed with a GIS to include geo-encoded information        (e.g., metadata) that provides location information (e.g.,        infrastructure vectors) for represented items on the facility        map;    -   Architectural, construction and/or engineering drawings and        virtual renditions of a space/geographic area (including “as        built” or post-construction drawings);    -   Land surveys, i.e., plots produced at ground level using        references to known points such as the center line of a street        to plot the metes and bounds and related location data regarding        a building, parcel, utility, roadway, or other object or        installation;    -   A grid (a pattern of horizontal and vertical lines used as a        reference) to provide representational geographic information        (which may be used “as is” for an input image or as an overlay        for an acquired “real world” scene, drawing, map, etc.);    -   “Bare” data representing geo-encoded information (geographical        data points) and not necessarily derived from an        acquired/captured real-world scene (e.g., not pixel information        from a digital camera or other digital image acquisition        device). Such “bare” data may be nonetheless used to construct a        displayed input image, and may be in any of a variety of        computer-readable formats, including XML);    -   Photographic renderings/images, including street level,        topographical, satellite, and aerial photographic        renderings/images, any of which may be updated periodically to        capture changes in a given geographic area over time (e.g.,        seasonal changes such as foliage density, which may variably        impact the ability to see some aspects of the image); and    -   An image, such as any of the above image types, that includes        one or more dig area indicators, or “virtual white lines,” that        provide one or more indications of or graphically delimit a dig        area, as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No.        12/366,853, incorporated by reference herein. The virtual white        lines may include lines, drawing shapes, shades, symbols,        coordinates, data sets, or other indicators that are added to an        image, and may assist a locate technician in the performance of        a locate operation by identifying the area of interest, i.e.,        the dig area. In this manner, a searchable electronic record        according to the concepts disclosed herein may be generated        based on a previously marked-up input image on which the dig        area is indicated.

It should also be appreciated that source data representing an inputimage may be compiled from multiple data/information sources; forexample, any two or more of the examples provided above for input imagesand source data representing input images, or any two or more other datasources, can provide information that can be combined or integrated toform source data that is electronically processed to display an image ona display device.

As noted above, in some implementations an input image may be indexed toGlobal Positioning System (GPS) coordinates or another coordinate systemthat provides geo-spatial positioning. An input image may includegeo-coding or other geographical identification metadata and may beprovided in any computer-readable format. An input image may alsoinclude images of map symbols, such as roads and street names, that maybe superimposed upon or displayed separately from an underlyinggeographic area when the input image is displayed on a display device.

Based on the foregoing, a digital image may be displayed in an availabledisplay field of a display device either before or after electroniclocate marks are displayed in the available display field. For example,in one implementation, after the block 806 in FIG. 11, all or a portionof the digital image may be mapped to the available display field basedon any relevant geographic information accompanying the digital image(e.g., GPS coordinates to which the image is indexed). Alternatively,the digital image may be mapped first to the available display field ofthe display device depending on appropriate scaling and/ortransformation parameters as would be readily appreciated by one ofordinary skill in the art, and thereafter one or more electronic locatemarks similarly may be mapped to the available display field inappropriate positions relative to the underlying digital image. In theexample of FIG. 14, a first visual representation of a gas line 1130 isdepicted, a second visual representation of a communication line 1120 isdepicted, and a third visual representation of an electric line 1110 isdepicted on an aerial image of a residential dig area for purposes ofillustration. As discussed above in connection with other embodiments,these visual representations may be displayed in different colors and/orline types to denote different types of underground facilities and/orvarious attributes of a given facility. As also illustrated in FIG. 14,other types of markings may be included as part of the displayed image,including environmental landmarks (streets), property boundaries,tie-downs (reference lines between marked facilities and environmentallandmarks and/or property boundaries) and their associated dimensions,junction boxes or transformers 1140, and one or more text boxes 2173(e.g., to indicate an address of the work site over the residence), andthe like.

The various examples of visual representations illustrated in FIGS.11-14 may be used for various purposes, including, but not limited to:

-   -   (1) The display may be viewed by the marking technician for        substantially immediate feedback of his/her work performed,        which can be compared against the ticket information to ensure        that the full scope of the current marking operation has been        completed satisfactorily.    -   (2) The display may be viewed by a supervisor (using remote        computer 150 that is receiving the data) as substantially        immediate feedback of work performed by the marking technician,        which again can be compared against the ticket information to        ensure that the full scope of the current marking operation has        been completed satisfactorily. When the supervisor is viewing        the marking operation in real time, he/she may contact the        marking technician in real time in the event that the marking        operation is unsatisfactory;    -   (3) The display may be viewed by a quality control supervisor        (using remote computer 150 that has received the data) as        feedback of work performed by the technician, which again can be        compared against the ticket information to ensure that the full        scope of the current marking operation has been completed        satisfactorily. By viewing the marking operation, the quality        control supervisor may dispatch a quality control technician or        other personnel in the event that there is the marking operation        is unsatisfactory, and    -   (4) The display may be viewed by a training supervisor as        feedback of work performed by the marking technician, which can        be used to assess employee performance and direct training        activities.

In the data acquisition system of embodiments of the present disclosureand the method of analyzing marking operations based on actuations of amarking device, the data that may be acquired and analyzed for anypurpose and is not limited to the data described with reference to FIGS.1 through 14 and the various tables herein. The data of interest thatmay be acquired and analyzed may include, but is not limited to, t1timestamp data, t2 timestamp data, geo-location information, directioninformation, any information included in the standard data stream of thelocate tracking system (e.g., GPS system), color/type of markingmaterial, amount of marking material in marking dispenser, serial numberof marking dispenser (e.g., barcode, RFID), ID information (e.g.,individual, vehicle, wage and/or hour compliance), battery status of themarking device, angle of spray of marking material (e.g., using aninclinometer), wired/wireless connection status, Bluetooth® signalstrength, storage capacity of the local memory, temperature, humidity,light level, movement of the marking device, mode of operation of themarking device, docking state of the marking device (e.g.,docked/undocked, charging/not charging), alerts against expectations inperformance (e.g., compare amount and/or type of marking materialsprayed against facility maps), and any combination thereof.

The information, such as shown in various tables herein, that may beacquired by use of the data acquisition system and methods describedherein, may be used for any purpose. In an embodiment, the informationof the data acquisition system may be analyzed against expected markingoperations in order to gain benefits in, for example, operatingefficiency, personnel management, inventory management, quality control,training operations, safety, customer satisfaction, and the like.

Additionally, the information that is acquired by use of the dataacquisition system and the methods of the present disclosure may becorrelated to other aspects of locate and marking operations. Thiscorrelation may occur, for example, by performing complex eventprocessing (CEP) using multiple data streams from multiple devices. Forexample, the marking device data streams (e.g., respective event entriesor one or more electronic records transmitted by the marking device) maybe correlated to other data streams of multiple marking devices or anyother devices in order to aggregate, assess, evaluate, draw insightsfrom, take action on this information, and any combination thereof.Correlating disparate data streams may be useful in order to betterinterpret and/or gain new interpretations that are useful. For example,by analyzing the aggregated data, field service providers may gainvisibility into the distributed workforce, may take corrective and/orany other constructive action to improve process management, may improveand/or develop best practices, and any combination thereof. In anembodiment, certain trends may be identified by correlating historicalrecords of the amount of time that is spent performing locate andmarking operations to other information, such as, but not limited to,the time of day, time of year, address of the locate site, experience ofthe locate technician, weather conditions, heavy or light traffic times,and the like.

While various inventive embodiments have been described and illustratedherein, those of ordinary skill in the art will readily envision avariety of other means and/or structures for performing the functionand/or obtaining the results and/or one or more of the advantagesdescribed herein, and each of such variations and/or modifications isdeemed to be within the scope of the inventive embodiments describedherein. More generally, those skilled in the art will readily appreciatethat all parameters, dimensions, materials, and configurations describedherein are meant to be exemplary and that the actual parameters,dimensions, materials, and/or configurations will depend upon thespecific application or applications for which the inventive teachingsis/are used. Those skilled in the art will recognize, or be able toascertain using no more than routine experimentation, many equivalentsto the specific inventive embodiments described herein. It is,therefore, to be understood that the foregoing embodiments are presentedby way of example only and that, within the scope of the appended claimsand equivalents thereto, inventive embodiments may be practicedotherwise than as specifically described and claimed. Inventiveembodiments of the present disclosure are directed to each individualfeature, system, article, material, kit, and/or method described herein.In addition, any combination of two or more such features, systems,articles, materials, kits, and/or methods, if such features, systems,articles, materials, kits, and/or methods are not mutually inconsistent,is included within the inventive scope of the present disclosure.

The above-described embodiments can be implemented in any of numerousways. For example, the embodiments may be implemented using hardware,software or a combination thereof. When implemented in software, thesoftware code can be executed on any suitable processor or collection ofprocessors, whether provided in a single computer or distributed amongmultiple computers.

The various methods or processes outlined herein may be coded assoftware that is executable on one or more processors that employ anyone of a variety of operating systems or platforms. Additionally, suchsoftware may be written using any of a number of suitable programminglanguages and/or programming or scripting tools, and also may becompiled as executable machine language code or intermediate code thatis executed on a framework or virtual machine.

In this respect, various inventive concepts may be embodied as acomputer readable storage medium (or multiple computer readable storagemedia) (e.g., a computer memory, one or more floppy discs, compactdiscs, optical discs, magnetic tapes, flash memories, circuitconfigurations in Field Programmable Gate Arrays or other semiconductordevices, or other tangible computer storage medium) encoded with one ormore programs that, when executed on one or more computers or otherprocessors, perform methods that implement the various embodiments ofthe invention discussed above. The computer readable medium or media canbe transportable, such that the program or programs stored thereon canbe loaded onto one or more different computers or other processors toimplement various aspects of the present invention as discussed above.

The terms “program” or “software” are used herein in a generic sense torefer to any type of computer code or set of computer-executableinstructions that can be employed to program a computer or otherprocessor to implement various aspects of embodiments as discussedabove. Additionally, it should be appreciated that according to oneaspect, one or more computer programs that when executed perform methodsof the present invention need not reside on a single computer orprocessor, but may be distributed in a modular fashion amongst a numberof different computers or processors to implement various aspects of thepresent invention.

Computer-executable instructions may be in many forms, such as programmodules, executed by one or more computers or other devices. Generally,program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, datastructures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particularabstract data types. Typically the functionality of the program modulesmay be combined or distributed as desired in various embodiments.

Also, data structures may be stored in computer-readable media in anysuitable form. For simplicity of illustration, data structures may beshown to have fields that are related through location in the datastructure. Such relationships may likewise be achieved by assigningstorage for the fields with locations in a computer-readable medium thatconveys relationship between the fields. However, any suitable mechanismmay be used to establish a relationship between information in fields ofa data structure, including through the use of pointers, tags or othermechanisms that establish relationship between data elements.

Also, various inventive concepts may be embodied as one or more methods,of which an example has been provided. The acts performed as part of themethod may be ordered in any suitable way. Accordingly, embodiments maybe constructed in which acts are performed in an order different thanillustrated, which may include performing some acts simultaneously, eventhough shown as sequential acts in illustrative embodiments.

All definitions, as defined and used herein, should be understood tocontrol over dictionary definitions, definitions in documentsincorporated by reference, and/or ordinary meanings of the definedterms.

The indefinite articles “a” and “an,” as used herein in thespecification and in the claims, unless clearly indicated to thecontrary, should be understood to mean “at least one.”

The phrase “and/or,” as used herein in the specification and in theclaims, should be understood to mean “either or both” of the elements soconjoined, i.e., elements that are conjunctively present in some casesand disjunctively present in other cases. Multiple elements listed with“and/or” should be construed in the same fashion, i.e., “one or more” ofthe elements so conjoined. Other elements may optionally be presentother than the elements specifically identified by the “and/or” clause,whether related or unrelated to those elements specifically identified.Thus, as a non-limiting example, a reference to “A and/or B”, when usedin conjunction with open-ended language such as “comprising” can refer,in one embodiment, to A only (optionally including elements other thanB); in another embodiment, to B only (optionally including elementsother than A); in yet another embodiment, to both A and B (optionallyincluding other elements); etc.

As used herein in the specification and in the claims, “or” should beunderstood to have the same meaning as “and/or” as defined above. Forexample, when separating items in a list, “or” or “and/or” shall beinterpreted as being inclusive, i.e., the inclusion of at least one, butalso including more than one, of a number or list of elements, and,optionally, additional unlisted items. Only terms clearly indicated tothe contrary, such as “only one of” or “exactly one of,” or, when usedin the claims, “consisting of,” will refer to the inclusion of exactlyone element of a number or list of elements. In general, the term “or”as used herein shall only be interpreted as indicating exclusivealternatives (i.e. “one or the other but not both”) when preceded byterms of exclusivity, such as “either,” “one of,” “only one of,” or“exactly one of” “Consisting essentially of,” when used in the claims,shall have its ordinary meaning as used in the field of patent law.

As used herein in the specification and in the claims, the phrase “atleast one,” in reference to a list of one or more elements, should beunderstood to mean at least one element selected from any one or more ofthe elements in the list of elements, but not necessarily including atleast one of each and every element specifically listed within the listof elements and not excluding any combinations of elements in the listof elements. This definition also allows that elements may optionally bepresent other than the elements specifically identified within the listof elements to which the phrase “at least one” refers, whether relatedor unrelated to those elements specifically identified. Thus, as anon-limiting example, “at least one of A and B” (or, equivalently, “atleast one of A or B,” or, equivalently “at least one of A and/or B”) canrefer, in one embodiment, to at least one, optionally including morethan one, A, with no B present (and optionally including elements otherthan B); in another embodiment, to at least one, optionally includingmore than one, B, with no A present (and optionally including elementsother than A); in yet another embodiment, to at least one, optionallyincluding more than one, A, and at least one, optionally including morethan one, B (and optionally including other elements); etc.

In the claims, as well as in the specification above, all transitionalphrases such as “comprising,” “including,” “carrying,” “having,”“containing,” “involving,” “holding,” “composed of,” and the like are tobe understood to be open-ended, i.e., to mean including but not limitedto. Only the transitional phrases “consisting of” and “consistingessentially of” shall be closed or semi-closed transitional phrases,respectively, as set forth in the United States Patent Office Manual ofPatent Examining Procedures, Section 2111.03.

What is claimed is:
 1. A marking apparatus to perform a markingoperation, the marking apparatus comprising: an actuation system; amemory to store processor-executable instructions; and a processorcoupled to the memory and the actuation system, wherein upon executionof the processor-executable instructions by the processor, the processorprovides an output stream of data packets, each data packet including atleast one flag field that is set or reset upon at least one actuation ofthe actuation system.